The Detroit Pistons aren't crying 'woe is me' over falling in the lottery and neither should you
Lottery magic would be best applied in future drafts that include Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Chet Holmgren and local star Emoni Bates.
Welcome back, friends.
You’re going to start seeing a lot more sports injected into this newsletter, which might be good for those of you who signed up for that anyway! Things have been inconsistent and unpredictable in 2020, but I’ve been taking the time to figure out and map out what I truly want this project to be other than a personal journal. I’m excited about what’s on the horizon.
Here we go.
It’s a fascinating time to be a Detroit sports fan or someone at the very least following the trajectory of the franchises from afar. Detroit is a great sports city. One of the best in America, but few cities have ever gone through a stretch of everyone being futile like ours has. The Red Wings and Pistons continue to get shafted in draft lotteries. The Tigers have a nice young core developing, but still need to add to it. The Lions exist. Throw in the fact that there is no college football around these parts and it adds to the bleakness of the year.
I do see a pathway to hope for all of them, which is all we can ask for at the moment. The Wings and Pistons have long rebuilds ahead of them but finally have front offices in place that have a proven track record of finding and developing talent and are committed to a direction. One needs not look further than the Tigers’ trio of call-ups this week in Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and Issac Paredes to see why there’s optimism there.
Heck, even the Lions *should* be improved this year and might even have one of the best offenses in football.
But today, I want to focus on the Pistons. Coming into Thursday night’s 2020 NBA Draft lottery, the franchise was sitting in the fifth slot in the order with their most likely spot being the seventh overall pick. Like the Wings — who fell from No. 1 to No. 4 — this predictably happened to them. That sucks, right?
Truthfully, not really.
The Wings lost out on a chance at a top-three pick in a draft that featured a generational talent. The NBA Draft this year does not feature that. And honestly, this feels like it takes a lot of pressure off of them.
The near-consensus top-three prospects in the NBA Draft this year are point guard LaMelo Ball, shooting guard Anthony Edwards, and center James Wiseman. Typically, landing one of the top three guys in the class means you have a foundational player to build around and someone that can drag you out of the doldrums. I don’t see any of these players as that, though they should wind up being solid NBA starters. Once you get outside of that top three, one could make an argument there is not much that separates the fourth-best guy from the fifteenth.
Would it be cool to have moved up in the lottery? Of course, it would have. The Pistons have never once jumped up from their projected slot in the draft no matter how many people tried to speak it into existence by sharing their Tankathon spins with the world. They are absurdly due for a good bounce, but this rebuild is just starting and it’s not time for that yet. Not in a draft year that does not feature a true superstar on paper.
I’m rooting for the draft luck to come in one of the next few classes where there are projected franchise-altering prospects all over the board. The 2021 class is set to feature star guards at the top of the class in Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham and G-League pioneer Jalen Green, as well as some intriguing forwards in Jonathan Kuminga, Jalen Johnson, and Zhiare Williams.
2022 is still a long way from here and a lot of things can change, but there are still some who believe that Ypsilanti forward Emoni Bates — who is a high school prospect mentioned in the same breath as Kevin Durant and LeBron James — will ultimately be eligible for the class. He most certainly would be for 2023. Maybe the lottery luck is sprinkled here and keeps a local kid home. I am not sure he has even taken the ACT yet, so this might be premature.
Whether Bates is eligible for 2022 or not, you’ll still likely have center Chet Holmgren, who has drawn comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki, at the top of the class.
I would take every single one of these players over any prospect in the 2020 draft class.
With all of this said, I fully believe and trust that there will be a good player there at No. 7 and that he’ll be a big part of the Pistons’ future. If I were a betting man, I would say it will be a point guard.
To be frank with you, I don’t know enough about the NBA to know where the teams picking ahead of Detroit might be leaning, but let’s assume the aforementioned top-three guys are off the board.
This would be how my wish list would look from there:
Tyrese Haliburton, PG, Iowa State — I like Haliburton’s game and his ability to get his teammates involved. The Pistons haven’t had a true floor general since Chauncey Billups and he feels like the prospect with the highest floor outside of the top three prospects.
Killian Hayes, PG, France — Hayes is left-hand dominant and everyone on the court knows it, so he’ll have to improve and throw some different looks in there to get defenders off balance. That said, he can play on or off the ball and his upside is going to have him in consideration for a team in need of a point guard that will be patient with his development.
Obi Toppin, PF, Dayton — Toppin is going to have to deal with the questions about his age and upside, but if the Pistons can’t land a point guard at No. 7, I want a guy who’s ready to play right out of the packaging. He’s a complete prospect, though perhaps not as flashy as his classmates. Grooming him for the Blake Griffin role and playing next to Christian Wood (pay the man) is intriguing to me.
Deni Avdija, SF/SG, Israel — If the Pistons cannot land a point guard or Toppin, I am down with the idea of adding more of an offensive punch at forward. His shooting is inconsistent and a big concern from scouting pieces that I’ve looked at, but his ability to make plays as a point guard would is always impressive to see in a player that has a power forward’s body. I just am not sure of the fit in Detroit.
Cole Anthony, PG, North Carolina — He was hurt this year and scouts were not super thrilled about what they saw when he was on the court, but he has the potential to be a lead guard and scorer in the NBA and getting him onto a roster that has talent on it may be what the doctor ordered for him. The Pistons are not that right now, but I’ll give Dwane Casey the benefit of the doubt for the way he has developed guards over the years.
Onyeka Okongwu, C/PF, USC — I’m not crazy about going with a center that can’t stretch the floor coming out of the Andre Drummond era, but Okongwu features enough rim protection and offensive upside to make me raise an eyebrow if he was the selection.
Devin Vassell, SG, Florida State — Vassell is one of the better three-and-D prospects in the class and you can never have enough of those guys in this league.
I would be stunned if any of the top three prospects were on the board still, but this is a draft where nothing would surprise me. If Ball is there, you sprint to the (virtual) podium to turn in the pick. Edwards on the board would be great, but then it might facilitate a trade of Luke Kennard. I’d be willing to bet on the upside of Wiseman in a scenario where he falls, but wouldn’t be crazy about it.
General manager Troy Weaver told the media after the lottery to not weep for the Pistons for falling two spots. They feel like there is a player on the board they will like there and given his background finding guys in Oklahoma City, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt to do so. In a roundabout way, sliding back feels like it takes a ton of pressure off of them because the stakes are lower. If you whiff on a top-three pick knowing how rare it is for you to get there, it sets you back and might cost people in the organization their jobs down the road.
The Pistons are finally dead-set on a rebuild and doing it the right way. I like how they have drafted the last two seasons and little-by-little they have stacked some solid roster moves to position themselves for an overhaul, but this is going to be a long one.
This is fine and quite frankly overdue.
Detroit is not a free agent destination regardless of the newer facilities and move to the Downtown/Midtown area. If this is going to be a team that competes moving forward, it has to be through the draft. Finding a foundational piece this year is still a possibility and there is a history of success with the No. 7 pick. I don’t need that guy to be a factor this year because I want to be in the top five in 2021 and 2022. Maybe Weaver and the Pistons front office will find a star outside of that range, potentially even in this draft. But that’s not what this class or this draft is for.
The Pistons have not had the No. 1 (Bob Lanier) pick since 1970. They held the No. 2 pick in 1981 (Isiah Thomas) and 2003 (Darko Milicic). The last time they picked third was Grant Hill in 1994. Greg Kelser of Michigan State fame was the most recent No. 4 pick of theirs in 1979.
If your organization has a history of being competently run for multiple periods, these opportunities might only come every 20 years. In some cases, it’s closer to 40 or 50 years. This was not the year for the basketball gods to break that streak for the hometown guys.
We will have to wait and see if the ping-pong balls bounce our way next year.
Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this! I can be found on Twitter @anthonytbroome to continue the discussion with you. Be sure to sure with your friends and subscribe for more content like this sent right to your email inbox!