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.
Feeling down on your way to work this morning? Got a bad case of the Pistons draft lottery letdown? Don’t worry, so do we here at Pistons Palace. Being stung by the Hornets, who landed the 9th pick overall isn’t what hurts the most. It’s that somehow for the third time in the last four years, Cleveland has the first pick in the draft. Following them at number two is fellow division foe Milwaukee.
Any other draft might feel like just another day in the office. This draft though presents three of the top draft talents we’ve seen probably since 2003 when Lebron Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade went in the first five picks of the draft.
We’ll have our reaction coming up later today, but first we bring you our picks from across the web this morning.
I know brother, I know… It makes you wonder if David Stern’s past is hiding the one ghost that would haunt his legacy and that ghost demands that the Cavaliers pick first. Three times in the last four years is enough. Pippen Ain’t Easy’s Ronald Agers explains the shock that hit NBA fans last night.
"I’m in total disbelief (among others) because the Cavaliers jumped from the No. 9 position with a 1.7% chance of getting the top pick…again! David Griffin, the Cavaliers GM said it was a defining moment. Sure, like the prior two times weren’t. It might seem like I’m rambling but are you kidding me? The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Lottery AGAIN!"
You can’t factor odds in though for the Pistons losing their first round pick to Charlotte though, says David Mayo of Mlive.com. The only reason behind losing that pick he says, is bad decisions.
"A new owner let fiscal philosophy override opportunity. A team president under fire wanted to dump a bad contract — one of his own doing — and swung a trade to facilitate it, but threw in a first-round draft pick to make it work.None of it was necessary. The NBA amnesty provision could have fixed the problem. But the Pistons didn’t take the sure thing. They decided to gamble instead.Tuesday, the house raked the chips."
To add insult to injury, it looks like Charlotte is already shopping that ninth pick they got from the Pistons, with their two other picks to land a veteran player to play alongside Al Jefferson. The Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell believes one of those guys could and should be Greg Monroe on a sign and trade deal.
"An educated guess: The Hornets will aggressively explore some way to turn the Nos. 9, 24 and 45 picks in the June 26 draft into something else. I’m not saying all three picks become a veteran, necessarily. I’m saying they now have commodities, plus at least $17 million in room under the salary cap in July.They’ll explore how to add another game-changer to center Al Jefferson. So I take it for granted they’ll check what it might take to acquire power forward Kevin Love, who seemingly wants out of Minneapolis. Likewise, I’d expect them to inquire about restricted free agents Greg Monroe with Detroit and Gordon Hayward with Utah via sign-and-trades."
Isn’t there an NBA bylaw in place that says Charlotte would have to take on the contract of Josh Smith if they tried to wheel and deal for Greg Monroe and give back the pick they already got for dealing with Ben Gordon for two seasons?
Look it up, I’m sure it’s in there.
Speaking of the devil, wouldn’t you love to see a big three of Rudy Gay, Josh Smith, and Boogie Cousins in Sacramento? That’s enough firepower to burn down their new arena before the plans even hit the pavement. According to The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones, The Kings are up to trading their 8th overall selection in this year’s draft.
Just got off the phone with Pete D'Alessandro. Kings open to dealing pick, but not at expense of passing on possible "gamechanging" talent
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) May 21, 2014
I’ll tell you what’s game changing. Josh Smith, DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay on the floor at the same time. Throw in Ben McLemore and you’ve got enough bricks to build that brand new facility in less than a year’s time.
You can’t pay for that type of production.
Finally, we end on a somewhat positive note. Matt Watson at Detroit Bad Boys brings us the good news that you can find real talent at pick number 38 and below. He rakes up some of the best to go that low in the draft since 2000. He also put together the list of complete busts that never saw the floor.
Uplifting, yet depressing.
Seems like the theme of the day for Detroit Pistons fans.