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

#10 Henry Ellenson (2016)

Not to pile on a young man who has gotten crushed repeatedly but Henry Ellenson was bad from the start and never quite figured it out. Over his nearly three seasons in the Motor City, he appeared in a combined 59 games. Some could say this is too small of a sample size to judge but it was clear that Ellenson was just not ready to be an NBA player.

Ellenson spent most of his career in the G-League and showed signs there why he went 18th overall in the draft.  He averaged 17.9 points and 8.9 rebounds in his first season with the Grand Rapids Drive. To be completely realistic Henry Ellenson seems to be a G-League player and nothing more.

Looking back there are better players who went after Ellenson but they came with their own risks. It is easy to look at Malik Beasley (19), Caris LeVert (20), Pascal Siakam (27), Dejounte Murray (29) and Malcolm Brogdon (36) and crush the front office for this pick but hindsight is always 20/20.

Unfortunately, this is a pretty common result for the 18th pick in the draft but this does not make it sting any less. Missing an opportunity to add an impact player repeatedly, as we will see going forward, is how a rebuild lasts more than a decade.