Why The Pistons Must Select The Best Player Available In The NBA Draft

By Ti Windisch | May 9, 2015

Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Andrew Wiggins (Kansas) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number one overall pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

There’s a good reason Andrew Wiggins on draft night is the image I chose for this article. Trust me. We’ll get there. First, I need to start off with a few facts. First off, it’s apparent to me that the Detroit Pistons have good young players at three positions: point guard, shooting guard and center.

More from Detroit Pistons

It’s also apparent to me that they have fairly large holes at small forward and power forward. That’s the second fact. The third is that the Pistons will most likely have the eighth pick in the NBA Draft this June. Depending on the results of the NBA Draft Lottery on May 19, they may end up with a top-three pick.

For the purposes of this article, it doesn’t matter where Detroit selects the newest Piston. The only thing that matters is who they select. I wrote an article about five players that might end up being drafted by Detroit and will probably do another after the lottery, but I’d like to amend that article a little bit with this one.

That article featured five forwards, which makes sense considering that’s the area the Pistons really need a few new players at. However, they cannot put ignore the other three positions when they make their selection. It’s very not smart to take anyone except the true best player available, unless your team is truly one specific piece away from title contention.

Detroit is not one step away. They’re probably at least a few seasons away, and even then the Pistons still might be on the outside looking in. Especially if they ignore a superior guard or center that falls to them in order to fill a need they have at the moment.

Reggie Jackson, Brandon Jennings, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Andre Drummond are all good, promising players in the NBA. None of them are superstars (although Drummond may get there, someday). Even if Drummond manages to progress perfectly and becomes a top-10 player in the NBA, he cannot win a title alone.

In today’s NBA, great teams usually need not one but two stars to win titles.

That means if any player who has the potential to one day become a star in this league falls to Detroit, they need to select him. Without even thinking about it. Even if it’s someone who plays the same position as Andre Drummond or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. That second star is the truly hard part of being a great team, but it’s necessary.

Here’s the part where I relate to that seemingly random Wiggins picture. In case you’ve forgotten, Wiggins was originally selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who knew at the time they had a shot as signing LeBron James in free agency. Wiggins and LeBron play the same position. But one important things people forget is that draft picks, like all players, are also assets.

Wiggins may not have found enough minutes to be worth drafting in Cleveland, but he clearly did on the Minnesota Timberwolves, who acquired him when they traded Kevin Love to the Cavaliers. Although many lambasted the trade throughout the season, it’s undeniable that before his unfortunate injury Love was a key contributor for the Cavs.

If they hadn’t picked the best possible player and instead tried to select someone who would play well alongside LeBron, they never have a chance to grab Love. That’s the other reason the Pistons need to pick whoever is best at the eighth overall selection. Even if they get someone who doesn’t fit in their lineup, that player can always be traded for someone who will.

Imagine for a second the Pistons had two options on draft day (this is a weird hypothetical, but just go with it). Josh Smith is a small forward that fits Detroit’s needs and might have good touch from long-range. Greg Monroe is a clearly better player, but he doesn’t mesh well with Drummond at all.

Neither one of those players ended up fitting in on this Detroit team. Smith had no value during his most recent season on the Pistons, and had to be released at great cost to the franchise. Monroe is an unrestricted free agent this season. If he was still on his rookie deal, he would not be.

In that case, he could be signed-and-traded for a pretty substantial return, because to other teams he’s a great big power forward or center they can start for the next five years. In this situation, Monroe would’ve been the better pick hands down.

Even though he didn’t work out, he could easily be moved for more draft picks, or specific young players Stan Van Gundy wants on his team. Smith just bombed in Detroit even though he had a better opportunity, and ended up being worth nothing to other teams (except the veteran minimum contract he received from the Houston Rockets).

I can’t sit here and write that I know who from this upcoming draft might end up ascending to star status. Nobody can for sure. But scouts will have some idea. That’s where Detroit’s front office needs to step up and follow a simple process; all they need to do is list the best eight players in the draft.

Whoever is left at the top of the list, they pick. It’s that easy. Ignore their positions and everything else about the player except for their game, and their ceiling. Rebuilding teams like the Pistons can’t make the mistake of trying to assemble a squad to make a postseason run yet. It’s not happening next year.

But it might happen before the next decade, if Detroit lands the right player in June.

Next: Our Latest NBA Mock Draft

More from Hoops Habit

Home/Detroit Pistons