Joe D is easily one of the most underrated people in NBA history among non-pistons fans. He was a MASSIVE part of 2 titles as a player and rebuilt a franchise that was mired in the muck into the “going to work” juggernauts of the east as GM.

Rick Barry…mainly because he was an a-hole and not because he was underrated.

I wouldn’t mind him coming back as our gm tbh

Let’s put in a context that should make it crystal clear to every basketball fan: Joe Dumars went against Michael Jordan in the playoffs FOUR times and won THREE of those times.

Dumars is one of the best defensive guards and a phenomenal shooter.

He’s also a two time champion and FMVP.

So why doesn’t he get more love?

1. His defence: The Jordan PR/myth-building machine makes its sound like the Pistons were just allowed to beat up on Jordan, so Dumars doesn’t get credit for playing great defence against Jordan.
2. His shooting: Dumars was a GREAT shooter. But early in his career, when the Pistons were winning, he didn’t take a lot of 3s as it was more common to take 15-20 footers for shooting guards, and he was great at those.

There is also the Tim Duncan effect: Dumars was the kind of guy who could score 25 a game if needed but who recognized the value of playing into a team. That mean Zeke, Dantley/Aguirre, and other guys got their shots. Dumars also wasn’t one to go out a chase attention. Zeke was more the guy to ham it for the cameras and look for a hot mic to talk into. Dumars was happy just sitting in the back ground and letting his play do his talking.

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As a General Manager, he was incredible. The biggest issue with maintaining the championship core and rebuilding was management. Davidson let Okur go because he didn’t want to pay for two starting centers under the pretense that he would pay when Ben Wallace’s contract came up, but then he didn’t pay for Big Ben.

Then, when the Iverson trade didn’t pan out but created cap space, Dumars wanted to hold onto the cap space until the following season because there weren’t a lot of great free agents available (Odom had opted to stay with the Lakers). But ownership wanted him to field a playoff team to keep the team valuable for its sale and signed Ben Gordon and Charlie V, signings which Duamrs got shit on for.

Then the new ownership came in and was like “get in the playoffs or your fired.” And that led to him having to swing for the fences and the Josh Smith signing and Jennings trade.

But other than Darko (which was a mistake a lot of GMs were willing to make that year) and drafting Brandon Knight over Klay Thompson, it seems that Dumars did pretty well in the draft most time and even pulled a few diamonds in the rough out of late first/second round.

This guy is like an off-brand Jerry West, and I mean that as a compliment.

But yeah… he wasn’t a dunker who dropped 30ppg, so yeah… nobody gives a shit.

Dumars > Reggie Miller but you’ll never hear it.

not sure about youre question but he’s the Greatest Piston of all time if we’re being honest,