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What should the Detroit Pistons do heading into draft day?

By Travis Gibbs

DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 18: Pistons owner Tom Gores addresses the media before the Inaugural NBA game at the new Little Caesars Arena on October 18, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. The Pistons defeated the Hornets 102 to 90. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 18: Pistons owner Tom Gores addresses the media before the Inaugural NBA game at the new Little Caesars Arena on October 18, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. The Pistons defeated the Hornets 102 to 90. (Photo by Dave Reginek/Getty Images) /
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Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons /

The NBA draft is a couple days away. What should the Detroit Pistons do before then? They have options that are worth exploring.

The Detroit Pistons are now just two days away from making a big decision for the NBA draft. They haven’t really made it clear which direction they will be taking either. They still don’t have an acting general manager in their front office.

Some of the fog has cleared in the same sense. Owner Tom Gores hired Ed Stefanski to be a direct assistant to him in the front office. He also hired Dwane Casey to be the team’s next head coach.

They’ve shown some signs of activity lately. Could they be putting together a big move going into draft day?

Detroit Pistons could trade up

This is the hardest move for the team to make right now. There’s a lot that plays into that.

The Detroit Pistons don’t exactly have the most appealing pieces for a team looking to move a potential lottery pick. That would be the only reason to move up.

The drop off of talent once the draft moves past the halfway point of the first round is visible year in and year out. The Pistons shouldn’t try to move up just be in the tail-end of the first round.

The point is the likelihood of finding a diamond is much more possible in that upper tier of the draft order.

They have three big name players that another team might be interested in.

Those three are Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Andre Drummond. However, the issue with these three guys are that they all have very big contracts that would be hard to move without a tag-along player/pick attached to them in order to trade up in the draft.

With that being said, would you really want it to even happen? Are they really winning a trade if they deal Jackson, Stanley Johnson, and their second-round pick to get back in the first round?

That’s only if a team bites on it. Even that seems very unlikely.

Pistons could stay put

This seems like the most realistic scenario as of right now. The Detroit Pistons currently have the 42nd overall pick in the NBA draft.

Over the past few weeks, the PistonPowered staff has produced a lot of content regarding who they might choose to go after with this pick.

Related Story: Who might the Detroit Pistons target in the 2018 NBA draft?

There seems to be some highly skilled players that could fall into Detroit’s lap in the second round. That’s in a perfect world. In a more realistic one, they will likely end up getting a player that will just be an eighth or ninth guy coming off the bench for most of his career.

Who knows, crazier things have happened. Draymond Green was a second-round selection at one point in time.

They could trade their pick

Here’s an intriguing scenario. Second-round picks aren’t that valuable. When they’re packaged together with players, it’s much more appealing.

The Detroit Pistons could do this and attach it to a player like Johnson or Luke Kennard and try to get a more established player to contribute to their team next season.

The likelihood of that happening seems slim at the moment. Trading their second-round pick would only seem to benefit them as of now if they could find a reasonable buyer.

The Pistons haven’t been very clear on what will be happening on draft night. These scenarios are all possible. What do you think the Detroit Pistons should do heading into the NBA draft?

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