The clock stops ticking on the 2016 NBA draft process about 30 minutes before midnight Thursday when the 60th and final pick will be made. But before that happens, it already will have begun ticking on the 2017 draft process – the accumulation of an overwhelming amount of information involving thousands of man-hours of work by each of the NBA’s 30 front offices.
What that process produces for the Pistons, who take both of their picks – the 18th pick in the first round, the 19th pick (and 49th overall) of the second round – into the draft, which gets under way at 7:30 p.m., is anyone’s guess.
More than ever, any and all scenarios are possible for the Pistons with the 18th pick. It’s the first time they’ve picked outside the lottery – outside the top 10, really, except for 2014 when they didn’t have a pick – since the 2009 draft when they picked Austin Daye with the 15th pick, one spot after Earl Clark went to Phoenix and one pick before Chicago took James Johnson.
Only Johnson finished the most recent season still in the NBA and he played sparingly for the Toronto Raptors. That’s a useful reminder of the uncertainty of the draft, where being picked in the first round is a long way from a guarantee of a lengthy and fruitful career.
In fact, three other players besides Clark taken in that year’s lottery have long since washed out of the NBA. Hasheem Thabeet was the No. 2 pick, taken just ahead of James Harden. Jonny Flynn was the No. 6 pick, taken one pick ahead of Steph Curry. Terrence Williams was picked 11th. In all, 10 first-round picks – fully one-third of 2009’s first-rounders – are out of the NBA.
And this year’s draft, by most accounts, looks more volatile than most with a high proportion of foreign-born prospects in the first-round mix and others about whom relatively little is known.
Here is a look at any of the several different ways the Pistons might go in the draft in descending order of probability:
Keep the pick, take the best player – That’s the safest and by far the most commonly used strategy employed by NBA teams. Draft for need and the surest bet is you’ll still have the same need when the next draft rolls around. The Pistons have two obvious needs: backup point guard and power forward with size to complement Tobias Harris. They might draft a player at either position, but they aren’t very likely to stop their search at either position. They’ll use free agency or trade to plug both holes. Stan Van Gundy said both of those things, in fact, when meeting with the media on Tuesday – position will have no impact on the draft, and the draft will have no impact on free agency. Trade the pick – The Pistons already traded this pick once, getting it back from Houston when they made the call to rescind the trade for Donatas Motiejunas due to concerns over the health status of his back. Would the 18th pick bring back a point guard good enough to be Reggie Jackson’s No. 2 and also be an option to play alongside him to give the Pistons two attacking playmakers? Maybe. The more risk the Pistons are willing to take on – like taking back a player a year away from free agency – the better the player is likely to be. Keep the pick, take a shot – General manager Jeff Bower has said every conceivable option is a possibility, so take it with a grain of salt that he’s admitted the Pistons might shoot for the moon with a high-ceiling, high-risk player. He didn’t name names, of course, but such a description fits players like Thon Maker, going straight from a Canadian prep school to the NBA, and Cheick Diallo, a highly recruited power forward who played sparingly at Kansas after a delayed debut over eligibility issues. Van Gundy said Tuesday there’s a distinct possibility, if less than a probability, that the Pistons will surprise many with their choice. In other words, their assessment of the draft class isn’t in lockstep with conventional wisdom, which is another way of saying that mock drafts are amusing but meaningless. The Pistons aren’t going to spend the pick recklessly, but they’re in an enviable position from a stability standpoint with the certainty or high probability of keeping all of their young core players – Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Harris – together for multiple seasons. Further, they have enough assets with cap space and tradeable pieces to address the relatively short list of needs. If ever a team could afford to roll the dice to some degree on a prospect they think could wind up having greater impact than a typical 18th pick, it’s the 2016-17 Pistons. Keep the pick, draft a Euro-stash – This option becomes much more plausible due to the number of international players grouped roughly around the 18th pick. The latest DraftExpress.com rankings have five international players listed between 12 and 22 – Timothe Luwawu, Juan Hernangomez, Ivica Zubac, Furkan Korkmaz and Ante Zizic. If the Pistons were to draft one of them – Zubac worked out for them on Monday, one of only four NBA teams – it wouldn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want that player wearing their uniform next season. But it would give them some flexibility to spend a little more money in free agency or add another veteran player if they drafted an international player open to spending another season abroad.
The Pistons have two obvious needs: backup point guard and power forward with size to complement Tobias Harris. They might draft a player at either position, but they aren’t very likely to stop their search at either position. They’ll use free agency or trade to plug both holes.
Stan Van Gundy said both of those things, in fact, when meeting with the media on Tuesday – position will have no impact on the draft, and the draft will have no impact on free agency.
Trade the pick – The Pistons already traded this pick once, getting it back from Houston when they made the call to rescind the trade for Donatas Motiejunas due to concerns over the health status of his back. Would the 18th pick bring back a point guard good enough to be Reggie Jackson’s No. 2 and also be an option to play alongside him to give the Pistons two attacking playmakers? Maybe. The more risk the Pistons are willing to take on – like taking back a player a year away from free agency – the better the player is likely to be. Keep the pick, take a shot – General manager Jeff Bower has said every conceivable option is a possibility, so take it with a grain of salt that he’s admitted the Pistons might shoot for the moon with a high-ceiling, high-risk player. He didn’t name names, of course, but such a description fits players like Thon Maker, going straight from a Canadian prep school to the NBA, and Cheick Diallo, a highly recruited power forward who played sparingly at Kansas after a delayed debut over eligibility issues. Van Gundy said Tuesday there’s a distinct possibility, if less than a probability, that the Pistons will surprise many with their choice. In other words, their assessment of the draft class isn’t in lockstep with conventional wisdom, which is another way of saying that mock drafts are amusing but meaningless. The Pistons aren’t going to spend the pick recklessly, but they’re in an enviable position from a stability standpoint with the certainty or high probability of keeping all of their young core players – Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Harris – together for multiple seasons. Further, they have enough assets with cap space and tradeable pieces to address the relatively short list of needs. If ever a team could afford to roll the dice to some degree on a prospect they think could wind up having greater impact than a typical 18th pick, it’s the 2016-17 Pistons. Keep the pick, draft a Euro-stash – This option becomes much more plausible due to the number of international players grouped roughly around the 18th pick. The latest DraftExpress.com rankings have five international players listed between 12 and 22 – Timothe Luwawu, Juan Hernangomez, Ivica Zubac, Furkan Korkmaz and Ante Zizic. If the Pistons were to draft one of them – Zubac worked out for them on Monday, one of only four NBA teams – it wouldn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want that player wearing their uniform next season. But it would give them some flexibility to spend a little more money in free agency or add another veteran player if they drafted an international player open to spending another season abroad.
Keep the pick, take a shot – General manager Jeff Bower has said every conceivable option is a possibility, so take it with a grain of salt that he’s admitted the Pistons might shoot for the moon with a high-ceiling, high-risk player. He didn’t name names, of course, but such a description fits players like Thon Maker, going straight from a Canadian prep school to the NBA, and Cheick Diallo, a highly recruited power forward who played sparingly at Kansas after a delayed debut over eligibility issues. Van Gundy said Tuesday there’s a distinct possibility, if less than a probability, that the Pistons will surprise many with their choice. In other words, their assessment of the draft class isn’t in lockstep with conventional wisdom, which is another way of saying that mock drafts are amusing but meaningless. The Pistons aren’t going to spend the pick recklessly, but they’re in an enviable position from a stability standpoint with the certainty or high probability of keeping all of their young core players – Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Harris – together for multiple seasons. Further, they have enough assets with cap space and tradeable pieces to address the relatively short list of needs. If ever a team could afford to roll the dice to some degree on a prospect they think could wind up having greater impact than a typical 18th pick, it’s the 2016-17 Pistons. Keep the pick, draft a Euro-stash – This option becomes much more plausible due to the number of international players grouped roughly around the 18th pick. The latest DraftExpress.com rankings have five international players listed between 12 and 22 – Timothe Luwawu, Juan Hernangomez, Ivica Zubac, Furkan Korkmaz and Ante Zizic. If the Pistons were to draft one of them – Zubac worked out for them on Monday, one of only four NBA teams – it wouldn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want that player wearing their uniform next season. But it would give them some flexibility to spend a little more money in free agency or add another veteran player if they drafted an international player open to spending another season abroad.
Van Gundy said Tuesday there’s a distinct possibility, if less than a probability, that the Pistons will surprise many with their choice. In other words, their assessment of the draft class isn’t in lockstep with conventional wisdom, which is another way of saying that mock drafts are amusing but meaningless.
The Pistons aren’t going to spend the pick recklessly, but they’re in an enviable position from a stability standpoint with the certainty or high probability of keeping all of their young core players – Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Harris – together for multiple seasons.
Further, they have enough assets with cap space and tradeable pieces to address the relatively short list of needs. If ever a team could afford to roll the dice to some degree on a prospect they think could wind up having greater impact than a typical 18th pick, it’s the 2016-17 Pistons.
Keep the pick, draft a Euro-stash – This option becomes much more plausible due to the number of international players grouped roughly around the 18th pick. The latest DraftExpress.com rankings have five international players listed between 12 and 22 – Timothe Luwawu, Juan Hernangomez, Ivica Zubac, Furkan Korkmaz and Ante Zizic. If the Pistons were to draft one of them – Zubac worked out for them on Monday, one of only four NBA teams – it wouldn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want that player wearing their uniform next season. But it would give them some flexibility to spend a little more money in free agency or add another veteran player if they drafted an international player open to spending another season abroad.
If the Pistons were to draft one of them – Zubac worked out for them on Monday, one of only four NBA teams – it wouldn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t want that player wearing their uniform next season. But it would give them some flexibility to spend a little more money in free agency or add another veteran player if they drafted an international player open to spending another season abroad.
