The "what if" moment that changed every NBA team forever

Detroit Pistons: What if the Pistons took Carmelo Anthony in the 2003 NBA Draft?

In the absolutely loaded 2003 draft, the Detroit Pistons somehow managed to miss out on several future stars. The Pistons infamously selected Darko Milicic second overall, ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. That baffling decision didn't immediately come back to bite them. Detroit made five straight Eastern Conference Finals and two NBA Finals and won a championship in 2004.

However, had they had Melo instead of Darko riding the bench, they could have perhaps turned several of those Eastern Conference Finals appearances into championships. After all, as good as those Pistons teams were, they could have used an elite bucket-getter such as Melo to give them more of a scoring punch. While they would have sacrificed defense by swapping out Tayshaun Prince for Melo, they still would have had enough good defenders in the starting lineup to offset his shortcomings.

Better yet, Melo was significantly younger than the Pistons core, which would have allowed them to rebuild around him beginning in the 2008–09 season. Unfortunately, Detroit is still trying to build another winner 20 years later, and had they drafted Melo, they would have been in a far better position.