Detroit Pistons Draft Dreams: Demetri McCamey

Alright, I’ve been looking at enough lottery prospects over the last week. Gotta catch up on some second round guys. I think the consensus is the Pistons need help in the frontcourt, but if a good point guard were available, fans would be happy with that pick as well, as long as all of the intriguing second round bigs were off the board. Demetri McCamey is one of the more interesting prospects who could go early in the second round.

Info

Measurables: 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, senior PG from Illinois

Key stats: 14.6 points, 6.1 assists, 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 45 percent from the field and 45 percent from three

Projected: Second round

How would he help the Pistons?

There are three things to really like about McCamey: he’s big for a PG at 6-3, he’s made himself into a great perimeter shooter (hitting 45 percent of his threes this season) and he takes good care of the ball.

The jumpshot is particularly impressive, considering this is what ESPN’s Chad Ford wrote about him last year:

"He’s not a great athlete, nor does he have a consistent jump shot yet."

To go from that description to shooting 45 percent from three in a year shows that McCamey put a tremendous amount of work in. The second round features a lot of players with fairly equal numbers of flaws and limited upside. The key is picking players who have a good chance to work their way into being good role players. Depending on what happens with Rodney Stuckey as a restricted free agent, McCamey might prove to be good insurance should the Pistons be down a point guard heading into next season.

He’s also able to play both guard spots, so if Stuckey returns, McCamey wouldn’t necessarily be buried on the bench.

How wouldn’t he help the Pistons?

McCamey isn’t going to be a player who can attack the basket from the PG spot the way Stuckey or even Will Bynum can. Although his numbers from the season were solid, the Illinois offense struggled at times because of McCamey’s inability to get in the lane and create shots consistently. McCamey also didn’t have the best defensive technique. He’s strong enough to be decent at that end of the floor, but he’ll need to work on using his body to his advantage because he’ll get torched by some of the league’s quicker guards.

What are others saying?

From DraftExpress:

"Outside the 3-point arc, McCamey demonstrated that he’s a top notch shooter at the point guard position, connecting on an excellent 45% of his 3-pointers this season. He’s comfortable shooting off the dribble or off the catch, and he has range well past the NBA 3-point line. This bodes well for him going forward, and should help to open up the floor for dribble penetration for himself and his teammates, especially if he needs to spend time playing off the ball, which is certainly a possibility at his size."

From ESPN:

"McCamey was another player who, after three years at Illinois, looked like a known quantity. He was a big, physical guard with deep range on his jump shot. Illinois never really asked him to run the show until this season. Now, he’s making the most of it."

Hail to the Orange:

"Throughout the years, I’ve seen him add many moves to his arsenal, and he’s been a better player as a result. One thing that was really working last year, but not so much this year, is the pull-up and shoot three, on a fast-break. It only makes sense for him to develop this shot as his momentum is so strong on fast-breaks that with defenders back-away so quickly, him pulling up and shooting gives him a wide open look. He hit it pretty regularly last year, but I haven’t seen it go down as often this season. Another move that came up huge in big games last season is the end-of shotclock isolation play: 2 cross-overs, step back, and nail the fade-away three. That almost single-handedly beat Wisconsin at the Kohl Center last year and began talks of the NBA draft."

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