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DTP · 06-29-2006, 03:39 AM

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/coll...er/14925762.htm

Quote:

The Detroit Pistons weren't expecting to have a chance to draft Will Blalock. They were happy to be wrong.

The Pistons selected the Iowa State point guard with the 60th and final pick of Wednesday night's draft. Blalock averaged 15.4 points and 6.1 assists for the Cyclones last season.

"We had him going in the 30s," said Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president of basketball operations. "We caught a break when all the point guards started slipping."

Detroit then traded swingman Maurice Evans to the Los Angeles Lakers for the rights to Cheick Samb, a 7-1 center from Senegal. Samb had been taken with the 51st pick.

Evans averaged five points in 80 games for the Pistons last season, sharing a backup role with Carlos Delfino.

"We felt there just weren't going to be enough minutes" for Evans, Dumars said. "His agent called and said they might want to be somewhere where more minutes would be available, and we tried to make that happen."

Samb, who will turn 22 just before the season opener, averaged 9.6 points and three blocks in the Spanish second division. Samb is expected to play for Detroit's summer league team, but will spend at least one more season in Spain.

"We've liked this guy for two or three months now," Dumars said. "We really like his upside."

The Pistons, who lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals, did not have a first-round pick, having sent it to Utah as part of the 2005 trade for Carlos Arroyo. The pick eventually ended up with Portland, which used it to select British center Joel Freeland.

Detroit has three players - Alex Acker, Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell - on the roster from last year's draft, so Blalock will struggle to make the roster. His biggest advantage is that the Pistons are looking for another point guard.

"Alex isn't really a point guard - we just had to move him there because Lindsey (Hunter) missed training camp," Dumars said. "Blalock can be that change-of-pace point guard that we need."

Now that the draft is over, the Pistons will focus on re-signing All-Star Ben Wallace and finding some role players.

Dumars can begin negotiating Saturday with Wallace's agent, Arn Tellem, but teams can't announce signings until July 12.

"We'll be on the phone Saturday," Dumars said. "But we'll just have to wait and see what the sticker price is. The ball is really in their hands."

Dumars said that the team will also look for a backup point guard and an athletic player who can attack the basket.
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I dont know much about Blalock but I think Darious Washington would of been the better choice for us. And i'm sad to see Evans go, I thought he hustled every night and played his ass off everytime he was on the floor unlike Delfino. I thought we should of atleast tried to get something we need in return for Evans, we have enough big men as it is we dont need this Samb guy. I sure do hope Joe Dumars has something else up his sleeves.