Ever since the NBA suspended the 2019/20 season in March, there has been an ongoing debate regarding Carmelo Anthony and how his career would have been if he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons instead of the Denver Nuggets.
Back in the day, the Pistons had the second overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft, which featured a lot of talent, with players who would become legends.
The Cleveland Cavaliers selected LeBron James with the first overall pick. The Pistons were next, and everybody thought they were going to draft Carmelo Anthony, but they took a different route, picking Serbian big man Darko Milicic. At the time, Darko was a good prospect, but people were shocked when Detroit picked him over Melo and other young talents like Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh.
Carmelo recently expressed that he would have won ‘two or three championships’ if he was selected by Detroit.
However, not everybody thinks the same. Ben Wallace, one of the best players in that Detroit team, recently spoke about this matter, stating he doesn’t think Carmelo going to Motor City would have been the best decision for everybody.
“If we would’ve drafted Carmelo, I honestly don’t think we would ever win a championship,” Wallace said on the 120 Watts podcast. “Melo would want to play right away. That would have the potential to disrupt the team chemistry. By drafting Darko, he came in and said that he is not ready to play on this team. Who I am going to play in front of. I’m not ready, and by him doing that and accepting his role, it allowed us to build and grow and get stronger and eventually win a championship.”
Big Ben also said the arrival of Melo would have affected the development of Tayshaun Prince, who would go to become one of the best players of the team.
“If we drafted Carmelo, Tayshaun wouldn’t blossom to be the type of a player that he way,” he added. “We won that championship on the back of the best block I’ve ever seen in my life, and I blocked a lot of shots. That is the type of grit and grind that the team had.”
The Pistons won the 2004 NBA championship after dominating the big favorites Los Angeles Lakers in five games. They then played in the Finals the following years, but the San Antonio Spurs beat them in 7 games.
Detroit would collect six consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances from 2003 through 2008, winning that famous 2004 title. Contrary to what Chauncey Billups recently said, for Wallace, in the case that Melo joined them, there wouldn’t have been any title at all for the Pistons.
