Detroit Pistons: Do over of 2020 NBA Draft

The pick at No. 19 for the Detroit Pistons is: Tyrese Maxey (or Isaiah Stewart)

With no summer league, a truncated training camp and very little practice time during the season due to the compressed schedule, rookies have had little time to get acclimated to their new life as professional basketball players.

Even on teams like the Detroit Pistons, with no playoff expectations, it took a while for the four rookies to get their bearings and become real contributors.

In the team’s opener against Minnesota, no rookie played except Killian Hayes. Coach Dwane Casey admitted Hayes was handed the starting spot because they hoped it would help his development (Note: It did not).

It was even harder for rookies on contending teams to find a place in the rotation. Unlike the Pistons, they are not interested in nurturing and developing talent. They care about winning _ and right now.

There is only one rookie playing a decent amount of time on a championship contender (we are not talking a playoff team, a team given a legitimate chance to win it all).

Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey.

He was expected to go in the mid to late teens of the first round, but the 6-foot-2 guard was, somehow, still around when the Sixers name came up at No. 21 and they grabbed him.

Even though Sixers coach Doc Rivers has a reputation of hating to play rookies, Maxey’s play has given him no choice.

Maxey first came to notice in the 10th game of the season against the Denver Nuggets. With the roster depleted due to health & safety protocols, Maxey scored 39 points against one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

When asked afterward what he learned about Maxey from that game, Rivers replied, “I learned he could score 39 points”.

The 39 points was part of a six-game tear in which Maxey never scored less than 12 points.

With Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Shake Milton pretty solidly in the lineup as the main guards, plus the addition at the trade deadline of George Hill, Maxey’s playing time was up and down.

Per 36 minutes, which on a rebuilding team like Detroit he might have gotten, Maxey averages 18.6 points a game.

Put it another way, among the 60 players drafted in 2020, Maxey is 14th in total points, but 19th in minutes played.

Maxey’s biggest fault right now is his three-point shooting, only 29.2% on the season. But he is an excellent foul shooter, so that shooting percentage should go up in future seasons.

A backcourt of Tyrese Haliburton and Tyrese Maxey would have been an exciting and productive one for the Pistons.

Don’t forget Beef Stew!

Maxey is the definite choice if one thinks Detroit does not need much help in the front court.

With Mason Plumlee and Jahlil Okafor as the centers and Jerami Grant and Sekou Doumbouya at power forward., that might not be the Twin Towers of Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond, but it is an adequate frontline.

If the Pistons luck into USC center Evan Mobley in this year’s draft, their center position should be set for the next 10 years.

But, if GM Troy Weaver wants to help the frontcourt after drafting two guards, there is, at No. 19, only one choice:

‘With the 19th pick in the NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons select. … Isaiah Stewart of Washington’.

We all have seen and been impressed by the 6-8, 250-pound Stewart, so we are not going into details on his game. This Tweet sums it up nicely:

Stewart would definitely be the choice, even with what we know now about the rest of the draftees, if Detroit wanted a big at 19.

Conclusion

So, if Troy Weaver could step into a time machine and with his knowledge of the present, do something different in the 2020 NBA Draft?

Somewhat.

The jury is out on Killian Hayes due to injury, but he is trending upward. Tyrese Haliburton is just already upward.

Weaver’s pick of Bey has been more than validated. Getting him at No. 19 turns out to be a great bargain.

Stewart has been fine and definitely a solid addition to the frontcourt. Maxey just might become an incandescent talent in the future.

But not a single bust in the trio Detroit did take. Other teams, with higher selections, can not say the same.