Questioning Joe Dumars

If you know me, then you know that I have much respect for the Detroit Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars. When Dumars was first hired in 2000 he made some moves that turned heads and made people in the world of professional Basketball ask "Is he on crack?", but considering how well those moves turned out, and the success which those moves generated for most of the decade, everyone, including myself, recognized the brilliance of Joe Dumars as being one of the, if not the best General Manager in all of professional sports.
Fast forward to this month and some very interesting moves that "Joe D" has made for the pistons.
The signing of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva are nice additions, but I question the price he paid for them. Gordon gets $11 mill a year, and Villanueva $7 mill a year. That is a lot of money for a pair of players who, to be quite frank about it, have done nothing in their careers. I don't claim to know much about Villanueva, but I've watched Gordon play against the Pistons for years as a Bull, and the best they can boast of is a 2nd round defeat against the Pistons a few years ago. As such, I have a hard time understand why the big dollar contracts were dished out to 2 players who are only going to make it more difficult for established players such as Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince to get minutes along with rising stars Jason Maxiel, Will Bynum and the heir apparent to Chauncey Billups, Rodney Stuckey.
Leading to more questions about Joe D's moves as of late is the way in which he handling the coaching situation the last 2 years. He gives Mike Curry a shot after only one year as an assistant with the organization, saddles him with Allen Iverson in a last ditch attempt to get to the Finals with the core of players he first developed, then, when it all fell apart, Dumars got rid of Iverson and the coach. After firing Curry, he had Avery Johnson sitting there for him on a silver platter-2 years out of the league and chomping at the bit to get back in, but, instead of trying to make a deal work and staying fast to this stance that he wanted someone with more experience, what does Joe do but go with another assistant. This one the Cleveland Cavaliers "offensive" coach John Kuester.
True, Kuester possesses much more experience than Curry did when he was hired, but again I have to ask: what has Kuester done? This guy's claim to fame is coaching Lebron James offensively-as if that is a hard freaking job!
I just don't get it. The Pistons are obviously heading into a transition year and the last time they did so they went to the Eastern Conference Finals before winning it all in 2003 against the Lakers. Back then, even though you couldn't see what the plan was back then, you could tell by teh personality of the players assembled and the coaching staff in place, what kind of team they were going to be.
This year, with players who have more of a playing history to examine, it's impossible to tell what kind of team they are going to be heading into the 2009-10 season. Will they score 100+ a game? Will they give up more than 100+ a game? Will they play a 3 guard set or play point forward? As of now, we have no clue, and, based on Dumar's past, we won't have a clue until we see it all on the court.
Regardless of how you look at it however, it does make you wonder-again-about the decision making of Joe Dumars.