Who Should the Detroit Pistons Select in This Years Draft?
By Ari Eizen
With the Detroit Pistons most likely heading towards the lottery; it’s time to start looking at potential draft choices in this year’s draft.
As the 2018-19 season moves along, the Detroit Pistons are on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoffs, and they are not moving in the right direction. So, with the Pistons playoff hope looking bleaker by the day, it may be time for us to look at who we can add in the NBA draft this year.
However, before we look at the players that the Pistons should look to take, we need to identify the primary needs of the team.
1) Shooting: For any NBA team to be successful in the playoffs, they need to be flush with shooting. This is definitely not the case with the current Detroit Pistons team. The Pistons rank 29th in the league in both field goal percentage as well as three-point shooting percentage. The Pistons only have two players (Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin) in the top 100 of field goal percentage in the NBA.
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2) Point Guard: Yes, the Pistons still do have Reggie Jackson (and Ish Smith) on the book for two more years. But the former is almost guaranteed to not be in the future plans of this franchise. Smith can still work as a backup, but he does not seem to have the skills of a starting point guard. Having a good point guard who can pass and score effectively is vital to many of the top contenders.
Even if the Pistons do make the playoffs, they will have one of the worst records of the teams that will be participating in the postseason. So, let’s assume the Pistons will be drafting in the 10th to 16th overall range.
When Adam Silver walks to the podium in June to call out who the Detroit Pistons will draft, there will already be some names that will be taken off the boards. Some who would not be good fits and some who would have been fantastic fits for the franchise. Here are the players that I assume will be taken off the board when it is their time to make their pick.
– Guaranteed to be taken
– Most Likely will be taken
– Bol Bol
Now, assuming that all of these player will be off the board come the Pistons turn to make their pick. who is left that would be a good fit for the Detroit Pistons and their future?
1) While Freshman point guard Tre Jones may not get as much recognition as the Duke “big three”, he is still a great prospect for NBA teams in need of a point guard. He has great passing vision, a good mid-range jumper and is a good defender. While his three-point shooting is a work in progress(28.1 percent from three), his height and length seem to be the only weaknesses he has outside of his long range shooting. Jones may be a great fit next to Griffin and the rest of the Pistons.
2) Keldon Johnson is a prototypical 2 guard with a skill set that is expected to last in the NBA for a long time. The Kentucky freshman has a great jump shot(51.3 field goal percentage) and can score from inside and behind the arc. He has good ball-handling skills and can move the ball around, while utilizing high basketball IQ. Johnson does need to work on his size and strength, but that is expected for many young NBA prospects.
3) At the beginning of the year, UNC guard Coby White was not expected to be taken in the lottery. His main strength is that he has very good passing skills (4.4 assists per game) as well as his mature decision-making. White is also a microwave scorer which can be a big help for the Pistons and their shooting woes. White is going to be a work in progress defensively, but that shouldn’t be much of a worry; he’s turning 19 in February.
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4) Sophomore forward from Stanford, KZ Okpala is a forward who played point guard in high school, so he has the passing skills of a guard and the size of a small forward. Overall, offensively he has a good skill set and is a good shooter(48.7 percent shooting this year). Okpala is a player that has a high ceiling and could fit well aside Griffin and the Pistons.