Pistons’ under-25 talent ranked 7th in NBA

Amin Elhassan ranked every NBA team by under-25 talent, and the Pistons placed No. 7:

"Players: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (21), Spencer Dinwiddie (21), Andre Drummond (21), Tony Mitchell (22), Greg Monroe (24), Peyton Siva (23)This is where the ranking gets muddy; Detroit has an embarrassment of big man riches, but likely cannot have both. Drummond has enormous upside as an athletic, above-the-rim finishing, elite rebounding big, but a lot of his development hinges on being able to play with guards who will look for him, and Detroit is short on those. His defense is not as good as one would expect, but the belief is Stan Van Gundy will help mold him in the same way Dwight Howard was molded a decade ago. The other frontcourt talent, Monroe, has a nice back-to-the-basket game and excels from the elbow, but in order to reach his full potential, he’s probably got to leave Detroit (and if his acceptance of the qualifying offer is any indication, he most likely is spending his last season in a Pistons uniform).Caldwell-Pope’s stroke did not follow him from college, but he’s an athletic wing with potential on both ends of the court, and Dinwiddie was a projected lottery pick until a torn ACL ended his season prematurely."

The Pistons essentially remained stagnant in the rankings from last season, when they were No. 8. Essentially, Detroit flipped with the Warriors, who saw Harrison Barnes fail to build on a strong 2013 postseason.

But there was much more movement around the Pistons.

Three teams fell behind Detroit because key players aged out – the Thunder (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka), Bulls (Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler) and Rockets (James Harden, Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin). All three teams are clearly better than the Pistons right now, and none of the three are old, even if they’ve slipped in these rankings.

In their place, three other teams – the Wizards, Bucks and Timberwolves – jumped Detroit. The Pistons should be better than Milwaukee and Minnesota this season, but all three teams have similarly strong building blocks for the future. Detroit’s are just further in the growing process.

The Pistons a strong enough young core. Drummond is a true franchise player. Monroe is a potential All-Star. Caldwell-Pope is raw but has the tools. I never saw Dinwiddie as a lottery pick, though he could have gone in the first round if healthy. Siva is gone, and Mitchell might follow. Overall, though, that’s reasonably promising.

But other teams are out here making serious moves, leaving the Pistons stucky in the middle. That’s what happens when you dump what would have been the No. 9 draft pick in the best draft in a decade.

Maybe the Pistons can overcome that setback. Drummond is a real game-changer. But it is something to overcome, and that’s why the Pistons don’t fare better on rankings like these.