RIP Petr Klima

Collins was almost in this club as a player; he had to quit the Sixers with bad knees a year and a half before Moses arrived and boosted Philly to its title.

 

Danny Ozark with the Phillies fits into that category too.

 

All the Blues had to do was not be cheap and take advantage of Demers and they could have had a different late-80s trajectory.

Immediately I thought of Dantley/Pistons. He was SUCH a low-post scorer and the trade for Aguirre made sense to me — but they won the next two finals 4-0 and 4-1 so what do I know?

 

Thinking back, they felt they had to get rid of Tripucka to bring in Dantley to make the team tougher and more physical to beat the Celtics.
Dantley got them closer to that, but then things blew up between Dantley and Isiah and they had to dump him fast for somebody who was isiah's buddy and could score something like 18 ppg. That was Aguirre.
But Aguirre was not known as a rough tough head knocker either. Like Tripucka he was known as a finesse scorer type. Who knows but maybe the Bad Boys might have won a title with Tripucka as well. (Probably not the second title, that was the year Tripucka started his downhill skid to the end of his career.)

 

When Aguirre got to the Pistons he changed his game
He wasn’t the scorer he had been in Dallas but he was a great passer out of the low post
He had the biggest butt in the NBA and nobody was going to move him out of there
When Dantley got the ball everything stopped
Trade was a puzzler but it turned out to be the right move

 

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Mr. Harry Ornest!

 

When Jack McCloskey brought in Aguirre, Isiah, Laimbeer and VJ took Aguirre to dinner and basically said we're not putting up with selfishness here, you will conform or else. Laimbeer told Aguirre he didn't even know why he (Laimbeer) was at the dinner, other than "I trust Isiah."

 

I'd love to see that movie. I'm already casting it in my mind -- trying to figure out who should play Joey Kocur. Small quibble -- Yzerman debuted in '83. Probert and Klima came along a couple years later.

Edit: I misread. You said they had TO GO before the rest of it happened. Indeed.