Detroit Pistons: Who’s been the best draft pick in SVG Era?

The Detroit Pistons won’t play again until Thursday. That gives us a chance to reflect and analyze. Over the next three days, we will do so by evaluating all Stan Van Gundy’s moves, and deciding which ones where his best as President of Basketball operations. Today’s post will cover his draft picks.

The Detroit Pistons may be off until Thursday, but there is much to discuss.

With a break in the action, we decided it would be a fun exercise to evaluate all of Stan Van Gundy’s moves, pick his top few from each category–free agent signings, draft picks, and trades–and then evaluate which of those was his best move overall.

The posts will break down as follows:

Tuesday, Best free agent signings in Stan Van Gundy era.
Wednesday, Best draft picks in Stan Van Gundy era.
Thursday, Best trades in Stan Van Gundy era.
Friday, Best overall move in Stan Van Gundy era.

We will jump into the best draft picks in the Stan Van Gundy era, but before we do that, a few clarifying points.

I will only be including a handful of Van Gundy’s best picks, in an effort to determine the best overall draft pick. Therefore, I will not be including selections such as Darrun Hilliard or Michael Gbinije, for example.

Draft Picks:

Spencer Dinwiddie, second round, pick 38
Stanley Johnson, first round, pick eight
Henry Ellenson, first round, pick 18
Luke Kennard, first round, pick 12

Who is the best draft pick in the Stan Van Gundy era?

My pick?

This one is a bit tougher than the free agents. For starters, players like Henry Ellenson and Luke Kennard have not had the proper amount of evaluation to determine the value of their selection.

Then there are the other factors to consider, such as who the Pistons pick in comparison to who the Pistons could have picked. For example, the Pistons could have selected Devin Booker instead of Stanley Johnson, and Donovan Mitchell instead of Luke Kennard.

To simplify this exercise, I am going to pick the player I think is the best right now against the other players Van Gundy drafted, not against the players that could have been drafted instead.

With that in mind, I believe, perhaps controversially, that Stanley Johnson is the best Van Gundy pick to date.

Now, do I think Luke Kennard has a chance to be better long-term? I think its possible, but I’ve been really impressed with what Johnson has showed since the Pistons traded away Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris.

I’ve always been a fan of Johnson’s potential, but these last six to eight weeks have been really eye opening as to whether Johnson can put it all together and reach that potential many thought he could.

Spencer Dinwiddie is actually my runner up. While a total non-factor in Detroit, Dinwiddie has morphed into a really solid NBA point guard, and that’s rare for second round picks. Dinwiddie was a great pick at the time he was selected, falling to the second round only because of a torn ACL, and he’s proven to be an impact at the NBA level.

Next: Detroit Pistons: What’s been the best free agent move in SVG Era?

That’s my take, what’s yours?

Runner up: Spencer Dinwiddie