Troy Weaver’s First Tough Decision: Who the Detroit Pistons should draft

The case for trading up

I understand that for many Pistons fans out there, trading up in the draft is not the smart thing to do. Trading up to the second overall pick, especially, might give the older fans a flashback with the obvious Darko Milicic pick, but nearly every single team that won a playoff series has at least one top pick, teams just don’t win without some top 5 picks.

Just look at the contenders still out there, the Lakers have three number one overall picks with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Dwight Howard. While AD wasn’t drafted by the Lakers, he was traded for by two second overall selections in Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball, and the fourth overall pick in 2019.

The Celtics have Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, both third overall picks, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, De’Aaron Fox, Trae Young, Kristaps Porzingis, Joel Embiid, Victor Oladipo, Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, were all top picks in the last ten years and each of those teams are contending.

Obviously, a top pick doesn’t guarantee a star, but all of those players I listed above all fit the same narrative, they are the primary ball handler/scorer/focal point of their offense.

Every good team has a “guy” who you can count on or expect to score when needed, and the elite teams have two. Lakers got LeBron and AD, Nuggets got Jokic and Jamal, Heat have Jimmy Butler, Celtics have Tatum, Brown and Kemba, I can go on and on, but you get the point.

Blake Griffin WAS that guy in 2018-19, but the obvious key word in that sentence is “WAS”. We don’t know how healthy Blake will be and we don’t know if he will be back to his old self or will his latest knee injury be the one that changes his career forever, so maybe the Pistons opt to trade up to get their guy.

LaMelo Ball, in my opinion and the opinion of a lot of scouts, can be that next Donovan Mitchell, Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, a guy who carries his franchise to relevancy again and single handedly make their team a contender.

Worst case scenario Blake is a shell of his former self and LaMelo Ball is our guy, and best case scenario, he teams up with Blake and Christian Wood to make a big three and then guys like Derrick Rose, Luke Kennard and Sekou Doumbouya can all help them out and instantly make the Pistons into a 5-8 seed and finally end the years long drought of a Pistons playoff game win.

The trade up itself has been rumored to be with the Golden State Warriors who are likely going to draft one of the two big men in this class, James Wiseman or Onyeka Okongwu.

One or both of those players will be available at pick 7 and with the Warriors already being in the luxury tax, every million counts so saving around $3 million dollars a season by selecting one of Wiseman or Okongwu at pick 7 instead of 2 would maybe lower the asking price of going up 5 spots.

The Pistons would likely have to give up a first-round pick at least and I would say it would probably be the 2022 pick as the Warriors already own the Timberwolves’ 2021 first round pick. I know 2022 is the Emoni Bates year, but I’m sure Troy would put a top 4 protection on that pick.