The Detroit Pistons have the 18th pick in this year’s NBA draft. Detroit will have the opportunity to add yet another young, talented player to their core.
While it’s tempting to trade the pick in favor of acquiring a proven NBA player, capitalizing on last season’s success, the Pistons should continue to build through the draft. The time to sell future assets is not now.
Assuming LeBron James remains with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is always a fun guessing game, Detroit can and should continue readying themselves to take the eastern conference crown once he’s out of the way.
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Seemingly every year, we see teams try to speed up their rebuild, diving into free agency, trading draft picks or prospects prematurely, often resulting in long-term mediocrity.
One recent example of a team opting to keep their own draft pick is the Charlotte Hornets. Last year, we saw the Boston Celtics offer four first round draft picks, two of them being future first round draft picks to the Hornets, in an effort to move up in the draft.
The Hornets declined, shocking everyone, in order to draft Frank Kaminsky. Kaminsky played well at times, late in the season and in the playoffs, causing match-up problems for teams with more traditional big men.
The Pistons are very young and their flaws are obvious. Following the Brandon Jennings trade at the deadline earlier this year, whatever depth the bench had at the guard positions was decimated.
It’s exciting that Detroit had so much success this season despite their holes on the bench. Thanks to some brilliant recent trades, bringing in key players such as Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, and Tobias Harris, Detroit`s future is looking mighty bright.
Being mediocre is easy. Being good is not. When Joe Dumars was running the show, the Pistons year after year traded future assets – many of them later becoming good to very good players for other teams, most notably Khris Middleton, and Arron Afflalo and Amir Johnson before him. Things got a whole lot worse when Dumars turned to free agency to fix past mistakes – something bad teams do.
The value of a draft pick lies in the fact that it is a known unknown. We know that we don’t know who we will get, how good he will be or how long that will take.
In recent years, Detroit’s scouts have done well gathering information about draft prospects, allowing the team to swoop in when other teams pass on the chance to draft a player Detroit liked.
It’s been a long time since the Pistons last drafted so late in the first round, but it’s also the first time in a long time that their needs aren’t “Everything”.