The All-Rookie teams were announced last night and the Detroit Pistons had two players make it in Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart.
Bey made the first team after setting several rookie records for 3-point shooting and being one of the most consistent rookies all season.
Stewart made the second team after leading all rookies in blocked shots, rebounds, field goal percentage while looking like the best rookie defender in his class.
Add in Killian Hayes and Saben Lee and Detroit has four promising rookies to build around, which has fans excited for the first time in a long time.
Because I am a Pistons’ fan, any hope comes with a healthy dose of pessimism and dread, as it seems like we’ve been here before.
Detroit Pistons: Last All-Rookie team players were busts
The last time the Pistons had two players make the All-Rookie team was in the 2011-12 season when both Brandon Knight and Kyle Singler made the squad.
Knight was the 8th pick in 2011 and had a nice first season for Detroit, as did Singler, who was chosen in the second round with the 33rd pick.
Knight had two pretty good seasons in Detroit before being traded in one of Detroit’s worst trades of all time when he and All-Star Khris Middleton were sent to Milwaukee in exchange for Brandon Jennings.
Jennings had some flashes with Detroit but eventually injuries took their toll. Knight went on to have a pretty decent career, including a few really good seasons for the Suns before eventually ending his career where it started after being traded back to the Pistons in the Andre Drummond deal.
Singler’s career was a bust after his All-Rookie selection and he ended up playing overseas before eventually retiring in 2019.
This should serve as a cautionary tale to the Detroit Pistons when it comes to Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart, as Knight and Singler showed how things can turn quickly if you don’t develop or value your rookies.
Bey and Stewart are different and better players, but let’s not forget that Pistons’ fans once thought Knight was the point guard of the future and that they’d found a second-round steal in Kyle Singler.
The Pistons failed to build around their two promising rookies and the 2011 NBA Draft will go down as one of the Pistons’ worst failures in several ways. Not only did they pass on several Hall-of-Famers but they failed to develop the rookies they did choose.
The Pistons are hoping to add another top-3 pick in this year’s NBA Draft so that they can build around Bey and Stewart the right way, as they failed to do with Knight and Singler.