2010 NBA Redraft: Looking back at how things change with hindsight

#7 Pick: Hassan Whiteside (Originally: Greg Monroe)

Greg Monroe was a solid pick and had a generally positive career. That being said, the Pistons were in a bad place and should have taken a swing on potential. For a team still employing Ben Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince at the time, there would be enough adults in the room to help bring Whiteside along.

Is it tough to make this statement knowing the team would go against their coach that season to such an extent that they mutinied? Absolutely. But that would have not necessarily shaped the rest of Whiteside’s career any more negatively than ending up in Sacramento did.

Whiteside to date is not much more than a stat-stuffing big man. However, if those stats are 14.2 points 11.8 rebound and 3.7 blocks, as he put up in his second season in Miami, you can accept that. Learning under Ben Wallace would have helped him dramatically on the defensive end of the court.

I am a big proponent of taking a swing in a draft when the prospects are a crapshoot and your team is on the downswing. Whiteside would have made a lot of sense for a Detroit team who took a big man and would turn around two years later and take Andre Drummond. Who knows, maybe under the guidance of the last days of the “Goin’ to Work” Pistons it would not have taken Whiteside until his age-25 season to make an impact in the league.

That being said, it is time to move on. With the eighth pick in the 2010 NBA Redraft, the LA Clippers select…