The Detroit Pistons have four picks in the upcoming NBA Draft, including the first overall and three in the second round.
The Pistons are very likely to use pick #1 on Cade Cunningham, and they should, as he has superstar potential on both ends and is one of the most complete prospects in some time.
But after that the Pistons have a ton of options. They likely won’t have three roster spots for additional second rounders and most of those guys don’t make the league anyway, so they could try to package them to move up in the draft, or just trade them for picks in a future draft.
But the G-League has given teams another place to stash prospects, so if the Pistons found three guys they really liked, it’s possible they could just use these picks, especially if one of them was on an international prospect that they could stash overseas.
I don’t think the Detroit Pistons will end up using all of these picks, but if they were going to, this is the NBA Draft to do it.
Detroit Pistons: This is one of the deepest NBA Drafts in years
The Detroit Pistons were one of the big winners from the 2020 NBA Draft, as they were able to get Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey with the 16th and 19th picks and both made the All-Rookie team.
But to be honest, it was not a very deep draft and if you look at the top-15 players there are at least six who were barely able to get minutes on their respective teams. If the 2020 NBA Draft were done again, Bey and Stewart would go much higher, but they still project as quality role players rather than stars.
This year’s draft is projected to be much deeper, and there will almost undoubtedly still be some impact players in the late first and second round.
So let’s pretend for a minute that the Detroit Pistons will use all three of their picks. Here is a mock draft of the Pistons’ second-round picks, which are #37, 42 and 52 in the 2021 NBA Draft.