Detroit Pistons Links: Draft Lottery Edition
By Joe Dexter
Every Morning, Pistons Palace brings you the reading material you need on your Detroit Pistons before you start your day at the office. We bring you the morning’s Palace Picks across the web to get you ready for the day.
Feelin’ lucky? If not, than you better check your references because Pistons fans need to be hanging their lucky rabbit feet from their ear lobes today. The numbers say that Detroit will be making a pick in the top 8 and holding on to their first round pick.
But we all know how these NBA Lotteries work.
Today’s Palace Picks focuses in on the intricacies of the NBA lotto and how insane today drives NBA fans, owners, coaches, and executives.
Let’s dig in!
WDFN’s Matt Shepard had Kyle Singler on his show this morning to talk about being the Pistons’ representative at the NBA draft lottery tonight. Here is a tweet recap:
Singler, "we need a player to come in and have a mindset that he'll do whatever it takes to win"
— Matt Shepard (@ShepMatt) May 20, 2014
Singler, "I agree-we underachieved. Dysfunction happens with losing. We need to get closer as a team."
— Matt Shepard (@ShepMatt) May 20, 2014
Singler, "no good luck charm for tonight...just will do something nice for someone else today and hope it will be returned."
— Matt Shepard (@ShepMatt) May 20, 2014
On the national front, Josh Sanchez over at the mother ship shares some of the top draft lotto moments of all-time and breaks down the process. Remember when the Cavs somehow won the rights to draft LeBron James?
Live Feed
Swarm and Sting
Call me a conspirator or a realist, but the 2003 draft lottery was an inside job.
Okay enough crazy talk!
There is nothing more real than the current Kevin Love trade talks. How many times do you think that has been muttered over the past three years? Love is like the innocent prisoner finally deciding that life in the frozen tundra sucks without a parka. Tristy Miller explores the best five trade packages for Kevin Love. Her number one team? The Phoenix Suns.
"No one expected the Phoenix Suns to be good this year. Many piled them into the same category of the Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, and Milwaukee Bucks as teams tanking in a high quality draft, but they blew expectations out of the water, just falling short of the playoffs by two wins. Some great, early season trades allowed the team to pile up draft picks and now they’re in prime position to nab a star available for trade.And Kevin Love could be that guy."
If I’m Minnesota, I need Eric Bledsoe, Gerald Green, and Alex Len — plus a pick. Owner Glen Taylor said earlier today that he doesn’t expect his franchise to trade Love next season.
And finally, the the spirit of today’s lottery, we bring you a draft prospect update from Arizona forward Aaron Gordon. One of the best athletes in the draft says he’s overhauled one of his biggest weaknesses — free throw shooting. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated talked to Gordon at the draft combine last weekend.
"“I overhauled my free throws. I didn’t have a consistent free throw shot. I had a consistent jump shot. I had about three different ones before; now I have one. But my free throws were disconnected from my jumper. I would get to the peak of my shot, and then shoot it. What I’ve done is connected my three, my pull-up, my 17-footer and my free throw. They are all the same shot, and it feels great. Everything feels smoother.”"
Stay tuned, as we bring you more draft lottery talk throughout the day, right here at Pistons Palace.