Detroit Pistons draft picks of the last 10 years: Where are they now?
2011 Draft
Round 1 Pick 8: Brandon Knight
Brandon Knight was originally drafted to be the Pistons point guard of the future. At 6-foot-3, 195 pounds coming out of the University of Kentucky the hopes were high for Knight. In his two seasons with the Pistons, Knight put up promising numbers averaging 13.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game shooting 37 percent from three in 141 games.
What most Pistons fans and NBA fans will remember Knight for is the day he got absolutely destroyed by DeAndre Jordan when Knight foolishly got in his way during an alley-oop attempt.
Nobody can bash Knight for his defensive effort but unfortunately for him, it appears as if his career will forever be remembered for being apart of Jordan’s career highlight reel. Strangely enough it seems as if Knight can’t seem to keep himself off of Shaqtin-A-Fool getting his ankles broken by Kyrie Irving in the Rising Stars Challenge.
He also missed wide-open fast break layup with the clock winding down to seal a victory.
Despite the fact that Knight’s glaring lowlights will largely overshadow his highlights, he has actually put together a rather decent career for himself with career averages of 14.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game shooting 35 percent from three for his career.
Injuries have plagued the last few seasons of Knight’s career, however it was only 4 seasons ago that Knight was a near 20 points per game scorer for the Phoenix Suns, putting in 19.6 points per game. Knight is currently with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2019-20 season where he hopes to return to form, but with Knights recent injury history it is unlikely that he will return to the 20 points per game scorer he once was.
Round 2 Pick 33: Kyle Singler (Acquired from Raptors via trade)
Kyle Singler came out of the University of Duke as a highly decorated player. His freshman season he earned himself All-ACC Freshmen Team honors, All-ACC Third Team honors, as well as being named the ACC Rookie of the Year.
During his sophomore season he was added to the All-ACC Second Team as well as winning his first of three ACC-All Tournament First Team honors (2009-2011).
In his Junior season, Singler was named to his first of two All-ACC First Team’s (2010-2011), as well as the ACC Tournament MVP, NCAA Final Four All Tournament Team, Sporting News All-American Fifth Team, NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and won the NCAA championship.
Live Feed
Sir Charles In Charge
In his fourth and final year as a member of the Blue Devils, Singler was named to the NABC All-American Second Team and finished his collegiate career at Duke as the fourth leading scorer in Duke history with 2,392 points. Like many of the players during the 2011 NBA lockout, Singler looked to play basketball elsewhere and agreed to play with CB Lucentum Alicante of Spain.
Following the NBA lockout, Singler got out of his contract with CB Lucentum Alicante due to a clause that allowed him to opt out at the completion of the NBA lockout. He transferred to play with another Spanish team: Real Madrid, until the completion of the season.
In the July of 2012, Singler went on to sign his first NBA contract with the team that drafted him originally, the Detroit Pistons. He played the full 82-game season and averaged a respectable 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game shooting 35 percent from three.
Singler would not improve much beyond this as his rookie season was the biggest role he would play with a team for the remainder of his NBA career. In his second season with the Pistons, Singler would up his scoring totals (9.6 points per game and 38 percent from three) despite starting only 36 games compared to the 74 he started in his rookie season.
He would play one more season in Detroit until in February he would be moved in part of a three-team trade that landed the Pistons their current franchise point guard: Reggie Jackson.
From there Singler’s role would diminish. He went from averaging 27.1 minutes per game in his three seasons with the Pistons to just 13.6 minutes per game in his four seasons with the Thunder. During those four seasons his numbers also diminished to just 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds per game shooting 30 percent from three.
After the 2017-18 NBA season Singler was waived by the Thunder and Singler signed a contract at first with Monbus Obradoiro and then Iberostar Tenerife where he currently plays to return to Spain.
Round 2 Pick 52: Vernon Macklin (Acquired from Nuggets via trade)
Vernon Macklin was a center who played one season in the NBA for the Detroit Pistons appearing in 23 games. In those 23 games he averaged 2.0 points and 1.5 rebounds per game with the team. Macklin appeared on the Pistons Summer League team in the 2012 offseason and played well enough to earn him a contract with Royal Halı Gaziantep — a team based out of Turkey.
A brief five games into the season Macklin as released which led him to sign a G-League contract with the Rio Grand Valley Vipers until the completion of the season. The following 2014-15 offseason, Macklin joined the Orlando Magic for their Summer League team and drew the interest of the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans would sign Macklin and then shortly later release him, which prompted him to sign with Al Jaysh of Qatar where he would play until 2017. He would have a brief stint with the Goyang Orion Orions of Korea and then in 2018 Macklin would sign with the Kawasaki Brave Thunders of Japan, where he currently plays.
Players Passed On: Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Isaiah Thomas, Tobias Harris, Kemba Walker, Reggie Jackson, Nikola Vucevic, Nikola Mirotic, Bojan Bogdanovic, Kenneth Faried, Alec Burks