Kristaps Porzingis would be perfect next to Andre Drummond

It’s official. The Detroit Pistons won’t be selecting in the top three this year, but that’s okay. As long as they didn’t fall below eight they were in good shape, which is exactly what happened.

Shew!

Now it’s time to take a look at what could be on the board when it’s the Pistons turn to pick.

It’s probably safe to assume that the top four will be some order of Jahlil Okafor, Karl Towns, Emmanuel Mudiay, and De’Angelo Russell. From Five down is where the draft gets interesting, particularly picks five and six (Magic and Kings) as they could go in a number of directions.

One of the possible scenarios could go something like this:

Karl Towns. 1. player. 86. . PF/C. Kentucky

player. 20. . C. Duke. Jahlil Okafor. 2

. PG/SG. Ohio State. D'Angelo Russell. 3. player. 93

PG. China. Emmanuel Mudiay. 4. player. 27.

38. . SF. Duke. Justise Winslow. 5. player

6. player. 67. . C. Kentucky. Willie Cauley-Stein

Mario Hezonja. 7. player. 73. . SF. FC Barcelona

PF/C. Latvia. Kristaps Porzingis. 8. player. 64.

With the board falling the way it does in this example, the Pistons would likely be considering to draft either Stanley Johnson, Kristaps Porzingis, Myles Turner, and Devin Booker. If those are the options on the board, the Pistons should sprint to the nearest phone and declare they are drafting Porzingis–he’s that good and a great value at eight.

Here’s a small excerpt from one of my articles on Detroit Free Press and my take on Porzingis:

"Pistons fans might protest against Porzingis after the Darko Milicic experience, but give him a chance. Porzingis is a tremendous athlete at 7-foot with elite shot blocking and shooting ability. His lateral quickness will allow him to match up with any power forward or center and despite being slight in weight. His length more than makes up for any player positioning him in the low post. His weight does limit him in low post offensively, but that won’t matter early on in his career because he can play the perimeter extremely effectively. In fact, Van Gundy may prefer this on offense to give Drummond more room to work. Porzingis also crashes the glass well from the perimeter, which should help soften the blow should the Pistons lose Greg Monroe in free agency."

While Porzingis’ weight is of concern to some I’d like to quickly point out that his 220 pound frame is exactly the same as Anthony Davis’ coming in. The only difference is at this point in time Porzingis will be more perimeter oriented on offense than Davis which means it won’t be much of a factor–at least not offensively.

Defensively his weight will likely get him into trouble, especially when guarding some of the more physical players like Zach Randolph, or even someone like Kevin Love. At times he will probably be pushed around on the boards, but that should be of little concern when considering his age (19 years old) and his length (between 6’11”-7’1″).

As long as the Pistons do their homework and can confirm his work ethic, putting on weight should be no problem.

The Pistons will still have free agency to add and subtract players, but their starting lineup will probably include Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Andre Drummond. The wild card is Greg Monroe, but there’s little reason to believe he’ll be returning to Detroit next season.

Even if he did return, Porzingis is better for the Pistons long-term if the goal is to build around Drummond, which it almost certainly is.

With Jackson not the strongest of three-point shooters and Drummond solely post-oriented, the Pistons will need to add players that can shoot the ball. In turn, Jackson should have more room to create and Drummond more room to work the post and have one-on-one opportunities on the boards. The pick-and-role that Jackson and Drummond orchestrated so well a season ago will only be more difficult to stop with the lane having one less body to clog it up.

Defenses will have to decide whether or not to stay put help side, (doing so would give Jackson a lane to drive), hedge Jackson on the screen (this allows Drummond to slip and have a free run at the rim), or rotate help side (which leaves Porzingis wide open in the corner). This example may be oversimplified, but it’s a good one to illustrate the type of problems a shooting big can create for defenses which is why the game is transitioning to big guys like Porzingis. Most of these “stretch fours” in the NBA are defensive liabilities (Dirk Nowitzki, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love) but not Porzingis. (You could make the case that Aldridge is an average defender or slightly above average).

Porzingis has great lateral quickness, a strong leaping ability for someone his size judging by the film, and great length. This type of defensive potential is rare among stretch fours, and one of the reasons why I think he would be a lock for top-three and a candidate to go number one overall had he played stateside.

In fact, I think the Magic and Kings would be crazy to pass on Porzingis, but with so many quality players available both may choose to go with the “safer pick”.

The Latvia big-man may not be the safest pick for the Pistons, but his high upside, fit alongside Drummond and Jackson, and his skill-set that Stan Van Gundy covets in powerforwards makes him the perfect fit for the Pistons in the 2015 NBA draft.

Highlight Film

Check out Kristaps Porzingis draft breakdown here.