The Pistons got lucky in the draft lottery of the sport that requires you do so to succeed
Detroit has its next basketball phenom on the way.
I was fortunate to grow up in an era where the Detroit Red Wings were a hockey dynasty and on one of the most remarkable runs in the history of professional sports. The Detroit Lions had the best running back in NFL history in Barry Sanders. The Detroit Tigers were… well, Tiger Stadium was cool.
I always liked the Detroit Pistons as a younger kid but did not have many recollections or memories of them from the teal era. I remember the horse head logo (which absolutely should come back) and that I toured the Palace of Auburn Hills when I was in day camp. Heck, I think the only pre-2000 memory I have of being there is when the Detroit Vipers were still a thing.
My first Pistons memory came in 2000. My brother was at Children’s Hospital in Detroit after getting his appendix removed. He was there for about a week, and I remember every day they had a special guest show up. Grant Hill was there sometime mid-week and did a Q&A with kids and families there.
I raised my hand and him what he ate for breakfast, as a seven-year-old does. He said that he had a big stack of pancakes and syrup. Riveting and hard-hitting stuff, I know.
Little did I know that would not be the last time I would up in a setting where I could ask questions of athletes.
I was always drawn to our local teams and played sports as a kid, but I truly came online as a sports fan when the Pistons won the 2004 NBA Finals. I can remember the pop-up shops on every street corner and every gas station with bootlegged apparel. I remember the posters of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton, and others inside the Detroit newspapers. I think at one point, almost all of them hung in my room.
I have memories as a kid of being that the Silverdome with my dad and uncles or attending other types of events. But it was that 2004 team where I really started to become aware of what I was witnessing and develop a fondness for it. That run of success from 2003-08 was a lot of fun, even if it felt like it was a missed opportunity to add another NBA title.
The Pistons are one of the proudest franchises in the NBA and have won three championships, which is more than a lot of teams can say.
Despite all of that, they spent the better part of the last 13 years in NBA purgatory. Not nearly good enough to make any amount of noise in the playoffs and not shitty enough to land a surefire superstar in the draft. There was some bad luck throughout, but fortune favors the bold and prepared and the Pistons were none of those things for over a decade.
The other teams would follow their lead a few years later, leading to what was essentially a lost decade for pro sports in Detroit. We have to be the only sports town in America right now that groaned about our teams returning to play during a pandemic. We would have been just as happy doing literally anything else.
Sometime in the last year or so, they finally decided it was time to blow everything to smithereens and commit to a proper rebuild. Detroit is not an NBA free agent destination, so this was going to have to be built through the draft and acquiring as many young assets as possible. This includes having to be terrible to up your odds of striking gold in the draft lottery.
A tall task, but not an impossible one.
Troy Weaver came into town as the new general manager last year and took a flamethrower to everything. Given Oklahoma City’s propensity to mine for talent in the draft, it was stunning he had not been given an opportunity sooner. He committed to Dwane Casey as his head coach, which remains a brilliant move. Casey is a steady presence and has developed a reputation for being one of the best developers of young talent in basketball.
Weaver gutted the roster while still signing players in free agency that could help them compete. Jerami Grant was a revelation this past season in a career year, while also taking a flier on Josh Jackson. Jackson would go on to have his best season as a pro. The Pistons slid to No. 7 in the lottery last season but were pleased that point guard Killian Hayes fell to them. They also flipped Luke Kennard and Christian Wood in moves that brought them an extra pair of first-round picks in 2020. They would be used on center Isaiah Stewart and wing Siddiq Bey.
What followed was one of the masterful tanking seasons in the history of professional sports. The Pistons were bad and wound up being the second-worst team in the league, but the on-floor product was pretty entertaining. Hayes missed most of the year but flashed promise here and there. Bey and Stewart were two of the team’s best players by season’s end and were in the starting lineup. Both recently made the NBA’s All-Rookie teams. They stayed competitive, developed young talent, and gave themselves a chance to conjure some lottery luck in a 2021 draft that is loaded at the top of the board.
The draft lottery sucks. Let’s just start there. In 2019-20, the Red Wings were historically bad and the worst team in the NHL by a wide margin. Not only did they slip in the draft, but they fell all the way to No. 4. Detroit teams had never moved up in the lottery before and typically always slipped a few spots instead.
The idea behind this is that it prevents tanking on purpose, but the sports gods always sort those things out. Just look at what has happened to the Philadelphia 76ers the last few seasons.
Going into Tuesday night, the worst pick the Pistons could have was No. 6. And there was a part of me that fully expected it to happen. Even fifth seemed like a doom all too familiar to us.
Even if the Pistons stayed in the top five, they were going to get a good player. Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, Jalen Suggs, and Jonathan Kuminga are all players that look like they can be superstars. It was somewhat reassuring that nabbing one of them felt like a safe bet.
The NBA draft lottery broadcast starts. Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum is on the screen. It’s go-time.
You knew the Pistons would not fall past six, so you kind of tune out until then. The sixth pick comes, no Pistons. The fifth pick comes, no Pistons. Holy shit, the Pistons are in the top four! Now we’re cooking.
The broadcast does the American Idol-eqsue tease where they say the winner will be revealed after the break. I die a bit inside.
Back from commercial break. No. 4 goes to Toronto. No. 3 goes to Cleveland. Oh my god. No. 2 goes to Houston. Wait, what?!
The Pistons won the draft lottery. The No. 1 pick belongs to Detroit for the first time since 1970. It was the franchise’s best day since Game 5 of the 2004 NBA Finals. They are going to grab a superstar to add to an already promising core of players.
Cunningham is by far the best, most complete prospect in this class. He plays point guard at 6-foot-8, 220 pounds, and can defend four spots on the court. He can create his own shot from all three levels as well as getting others involved. He also shoots 40 percent from three in a league that has rapidly become a perimeter-based game. There are questions about his athleticism, but he makes up for it with how sharp he is in all other areas. Cunningham has consistently drawn comparisons to Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum.
Cunningham played on a subpar Oklahoma State team in his lone season in college and dragged them to the NCAA Tournament on his own. He can go out and get you 40 points just as easily as he could grab 10 rebounds and add 7-8 assists. He has an incredible feel for the game and makes everyone around him better. That is massively exciting as a Pistons fan given how well the young pieces played last year while getting almost nothing out of the point guard position.
There are questions about how he could fit with Hayes, but this will be Cunningham’s team if/when he becomes a Piston. Both guys have shown an ability to play off the ball, so fit does not seem like too much of a concern.
This is a slam-dunk, run to the podium prospect for the Pistons and might be the easiest decision Weaver ever makes despite his assurance that there are five guys he will look at closely. He has his pick of the litter now and it is hard to see anyone else coming off the board at No. 1. Cunningham checks off nearly every box aside from being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Green might be a name to watch after lighting up the G-League this past season. He might be the player in the class with the most scoring upside and would be a hell of a consolation prize, but Cunningham looks too versatile and too safe a pick to pass up.
The NBA is a league that requires you to get lucky in landing a star somewhere along the line to compete for championships. They can be found after the No. 1 pick, but this is the one lottery where winning it can drastically change the fortunes of your franchise for a decade-plus. There are only five players on the court at once and 12 on a team. Adding just one talented piece has ripple effects across the entire league.
Cunningham is the superstar the Pistons have so desperately needed since their window of contention closed in 2008. If it’s not him, I trust Weaver will grab another star instead. This just feels like too good a match to pass up. The opportunity to bring in a talented team-first guy that works hard and is a great leader match what this franchise needs and what this city demands of its star athletes.
The NBA Draft is July 29, so there is still some time to sort things out before things are made official. But this is the best it has felt to be a Pistons fan since NBA titles were on the table. I am over the moon about what the future holds for this franchise.