Pistons didn't need Anthony.(NBA)

Last offseason, things were much different in Detroit. The Pistons fired Rick Carlisle, their two-time 50-win coach, and replaced him with NBA drifter Larry Brown. The team had lucked into the No. 2 pick in the draft lottery, thanks to a trade made during the previous century. But on draft day, Detroit passed up its chance at surefire star Carmelo Anthony in favor of international man of mystery Darko Milicic.

Admit it: You thought Pistons team president Joe Dumars was daft. Then again, you might have thought the same thing the previous offseason, when Dumars traded established star Jerry Stackhouse for the relatively unknown Richard Hamilton (in case you don't know, that worked out pretty well for the Pistons).

In fact, there are plenty out there who still think Dumars is daft, folks who quickly would point to the Pistons' postseason scoring problems and present Anthony as the solution. The math seems simple. Anthony averaged 21.0 points per game for the Nuggets this season. Milicic, meanwhile, made 34 uneventful cameos.

But it's too simple to look at Detroit--or any team--that way. Heading into this season, the Pistons were an established, veteran group, built around Chauncey Billups, Hamilton, Ben Wallace and a team concept. They were a tough defensive team that had a spot in the Eastern Conference finals last year, thanks in large part to the performance of promising small forward Tayshaun Prince.

Now drop Anthony onto the team, and it might sound like an impressive lineup, especially after Detroit's trade for Rasheed Wallace (there's no certainty the team would have traded for Wallace if it had Anthony; we'll let that slide for the sake of argument). But that ignores the intricacies of NBA teams. "The one thing you can say about us," says Billups, "is that we are a team. We don't care who gets the ball or who takes the shots."

Anthony needs the ball. He was able to take shots in bulk--he averaged 17.9 per game--because the Nuggets needed him to do so. A portion of those 17.9 shots were ill-advised, which is to be expected with a 19-year-old rookie learning the ropes. Some Denver veterans, and even coach Jeff Bzdelik, grumbled at times about Anthony's shot selection, but the Nuggets could live with his mistakes as long as he kept learning and improving.

Hamilton was the Pistons' top shot-taker this year, with just 14.9 per game. Billups and Rasheed Wallace were next, at 12.8 per game. Where, exactly, would Detroit find room for the shots Anthony needs to take? Anthony is going to be a consistent, reliable scorer in the NBA, but he was a rookie this season. Imagine putting a rookie on a successful veteran team and telling the vets to feed him the ball, no matter what. It would not go over very well with those veterans.