Detroit Pistons: Ranking the last decade’s first-round picks

It has been a rough decade of drafting for the Detroit Pistons. However, it is not all bad. We look back at the last 10 Pistons first-round picks.

If you have been a Detroit Pistons fan for a long time you know the organization has had a rough stretch of drafting. Since Ed Stefanski took over things have improved slightly. He may have the interim tag still in place but he is in the midst (or at the end of) his second season in the role after taking over in the summer of 2018.

Joe Dumars started strong as general manager but drafting was never his strength. The Jeff Bower/Stan Van Gundy tandem had plenty of issues and the draft was certainly one of them.

All that being said, we are entering a new decade of Pistons basketball so it is a perfect time to look back at the last 10 first-round picks the organization has made and see where they rank against each other. There are some years with blanks so we will go back a little further. There was a time where first-round picks were not the most valuable tool the team had. Also bringing in Blake Griffin took them out of the running for a year.

For longtime Detroit Piston fans look at this as something of a therapy session. Not all of this is going to be good. But sometimes that’s the best way to get past it. And for newer or younger fans this can be a fun history lesson.

For me personally even if many of these picks did not pan out how we would have hoped they are still some of my favorite Pistons I have watched. So without further ado, let’s dig in.