The Detroit Pistons have been historically unfortunate in the NBA draft lottery, going back decades. They haven’t had the first pick in an NBA draft since 1970 when they selected Bob Lanier, and they haven’t moved up in the draft since 2003 when they drafted Darko Milicic second overall. And entering Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery, the Pistons had never moved up with their own pick (they moved up with the Memphis Grizzlies’ pick in 2003).
That all changed when the lottery balls fell into place in just the right magical sequence and the Detroit Pistons moved up from the No. 2 slot to No. 1, and they emerged from the lottery as the biggest winner of the evening.
The Detroit Pistons conquered decades of misfortune by winning the NBA draft lottery Tuesday night. With Cade Cunningham at the top, they won the right one.
The Detroit Pistons couldn’t have picked a better lottery to win. A year ago they were disappointed to finish with the seventh pick, but it was a weak draft. This year, the draft is a strong class, perhaps even to a historic degree at the top, and Cade Cunningham out of Oklahoma State is the consensus No. 1 pick even considering how strong the rest of the class is.
There doesn’t appear to be much guesswork about Cunningham’s ultimate destination, either from the team or Cunningham’s camp:
Sources: The plan for presumptive No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham will be to visit only one team prior to the NBA Draft on July 29: The Detroit Pistons.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 23, 2021
You don’t deserve anything in the NBA, or in life itself for that matter, but the Detroit Pistons have a case for the most worthy lottery winner this season. They refused to tank for years, even to their detriment, and then when they finally lost enough games to have a bottom-two record, they did it the right way. They built a team that would play hard and beat better teams when they slipped and constructed their philosophy from the culture out.
Now they’ll be able to add Cunningham to a roster including breakout star Jerami Grant, and last season’s rookie class including Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey. He’ll be coached by Dwane Casey, whose development work with this young core was rewarded a month ago with an extension, and Casey has a fantastic record of youngsters improving under his watch in Detroit and elsewhere.
Cunningham will join a Pistons franchise intent on building a winner and returning to its tradition of glory, and run by intelligent and savvy basketball geniuses like Troy Weaver. While the Pistons are eminently fortunate to have won THIS lottery with THIS prospect at the top, Cade Cunningham is lucky to join a stable organization with a bright future.
This is a franchise with a championship pedigree, and inside the halls of the Pistons Performance Center, now more than ever they surely believe that the best is yet to come.