Detroit Pistons draft picks of the last 10 years: Where are they now?

2012 Draft

Round 1 Pick 9: Andre Drummond

It is crazy to think of how long Andre Drummond has been with the team considering he just recently turned 26 at the beginning of August. When Drummond was drafted he was considered a “man child” and a freakish athlete. The knock on Drummond was not whether or not he was physically able to play basketball but whether or not he was mentally willing to.

The question that has followed Drummond seemingly his entire career is “does he have the passion and drive to improve and be great?” Drummond has consistently shown that he is willing and able to improve.

During Drummond’s tenure as a Piston he has been a staple on the season leaderboards for rebounding statistics— being the player with the most defensive rebounds from the 2015-16 to the 2018-19 season, the most total rebounds from the 2015-16 to the 2018-19 season, and the most offensive rebounds from the 2013-14 to the 2018-19 season.

Drummond, at his best, is a double-double machine capable of putting up 15 and 15 or even 20 and 20 games with regularity. Last season, Drummond led the league recording 69 double-doubles. Of those 69 double-doubles, 12 of those games Drummond recorded at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. We know Drummond can rebound at an elite rate, but how has his scoring abilities improved?

When Drummond entered the league he was incredibly raw, he had all the athleticism in the world but virtually no reliable post moves. In college, Drummond was able to get away with this because he is so physically gifted, but in the NBA where everyone else is just as talented as you this would no longer fly. While Drummond is certainly no Tim Duncan, he has improved his post game to confidently be able to feature a post hook, a floater, and a drop-step layup.

Drummond has consistently been able to increase his field goal attempts per game while maintaining a field goal percentage above 50 percent (54 percent on field goals for his career). This has transformed Drummond from a player averaging 7.9 points and 7.6 rebounds his rookie season, to a player now averaging 17.3 points and 15.6 rebounds in this most recent season.

The biggest criticism that Drummond faces nowadays as he enters the prime of his career is that he lacks the floor spacing abilities that many NBA centers possess nowadays. Drummond is a career 15 percent 3-point shooter despite numerous off season videos of him practicing which leads many fans to wish he would abandon the practice altogether.

It would not be ludicrous to believe that Drummond could improve to be at least respectable in this aspect of his game. Remember at one point Drummond was the NBA’s worst free throw shooter of all time (35.5 percent on free throws in 2015-16), and yet in his previous two seasons Drummond has shot a respectable 60 percent from the charity stripe. Sure it is still a ways away from the 2018-19 NBA league free throw percentage of 76.6 percent, but to go from the worst of all time to teams having to respect your ability to make free throws is quite an impressive feat that Drummond accomplished rather quickly.

For this reason it does not seem ridiculous to believe that one day Drummond may be able to improve his 3-point accuracy to somewhere within the realm of 30 percent. Piston fans aren’t asking him to hit step back fadeaways. Simply if a player is sagging off of him for Drummond to be able to knockdown a jumper with enough consistency for teams to have to respect his shot, it would do wonders for the Pistons.

Drummond is entering the second to last year of his contract, but it could potentially be the final year if Drummond decided to exercise his player option to become a free agent in the 2020 offseason. If he does, Drummond will likely be the top big man on the market and will command a field of potential suitors wiling to pay him big money.

What the future holds for Drummond’s tenure with the Pistons is uncertain. Will he get traded? Will he resign? Will he sign with another team come free agency? Only time will tell.

Round 2 Pick 39: Khris Middleton

Just like Dinwiddie, Khris Middleton is another case of the Pistons doing an excellent job of recognizing talent late in the draft but doing a terrible job of recognizing the talent while they had him under contract. In his lone season with the Pistons, Middleton did not see much playing time. In the 27 games that Middleton appeared for the Pistons he was able to average 6.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. Entering the following season, Middleton was traded in part of a deal to acquire the former Pistons starting point guard: Brandon Jennings.

Middleton would then go on to flourish with the Bucks appearing in 82 games the following season, bumping his averages to 12.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1 steal per game shooting  41 percent from deep. From that point on, Middleton has consistently improved to get to the 18.3 points, 6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1 steal per game player that he is today while shooting an accurate 39 percent from 3-point range for his career.

While Jennings had some high moments and brought some excitement to the Pistons, he was definitely not the caliber of player that Middleton is now. Middleton could have been the three-and-D forward that the Pistons had been sorely lacking for so many seasons. Hindsight is always 20/20 and, along with the Dinwiddie situation, the undervaluing of Middleton’s is one of the biggest blunders of the Pistons last decade.

Round 2 Pick 44:Kim English (Acquired from Rockets via trade)

Kim English came out of the university of Missouri as a 6-foot-6 guard that was twice named to the All Big 12 Third Team (2010 and 2012) and was named the Big 12 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

English got to play a rather significant portion of his lone season in the NBA in comparison to most of the second round picks on this list, as English appeared in 41 games for the Pistons. In that time English averaged 2.9 points and 0.9 rebounds. After the 2013 summer league, English was waived by the Pistons which led to him signing with Montepaschi Siena of Italy.

English only played with the team for nine games before he eventually parted ways with the team and signed with Chorale Roanne of France for the remainder of the season.

Entering the 2014-15 NBA season, English signed with the Orlando Magic to be apart of their Summer League team. His play caught the eyes of the Chicago Bulls and English signed with them in late September, however was waived a few weeks later. In little over a week English returned to France, this time signing with the team SLUC Nancy Basket.

A few months later English left that team to sign a one-month deal with another French team named Cholet Basket. In February 2015, English signed with his final NBA team Guaros de Lara of Venezuela. Upon the completion of his time with this team English ended his playing career and began to look for coaching opportunities.

English began his coaching career as an assistant at the University of Tulsa from 2015-17. From there he went on to coach for the University of Colorado from 2017-19 up until recently. Currently, English works as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee.

Players Passed On: Draymond Green, Jae Crowder