Detroit Pistons: So who gets benched by No. 1 NBA Draft pick?

If the Detroit Pistons keep the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, it is a pretty safe bet that player will be a starter from Game 1. But who gets knocked out of the starting lineup? Depends on who they draft.

Last season, the Detroit Pistons took guard Killian Hayes with the No. 7 pick in the draft and made him a starter from day one. Coach Dwane Casey admitted later that the 6-foot-5 Frenchman did not earn the job in training camp. It was entirely due to where he was drafted. They wanted to see if he would ‘sink or swim’.

Mostly he sank. His starting games ended after just seven, when a serious hip injury sidelined Hayes for three months. At the time he was shooting 25-percent from the field. How bad is that? It’s 10 percentage points worse then Ben Simmons’ playoff foul shooting,

When Hayes returned, he began by coming off the bench and slowly working his way back into the starting lineup (when the games were meaningless), Hayes played much better.

The point is, if Pistons management force fed the No. 7 pick to be a Game 1 starter, you know whoever they select at No.1 this year is going to start from the get-go.

So, if the first pick becomes a starter, who starts the game on the bench, who was a starter last year?

First, lets establish who the returning starters are.

The benchmark should be the May 8 game at the Philadelphia 76ers. That is the last time coach Casey played the veteran players, After that, they were out with ‘injuries’ and ‘rest’ and the kids all played and gained valuable experience (and pretty much lost every game).

Here was the starting line for Detroit vs. Philadephia:

Point guard: Killian Hayes

Shooting guard: Wayne Ellington (Note: Hamiduo Diallo probably would have startd but was out with an injury)

Center: Mason Plumlee

Small forward: Saddiq Bey

Power forward: Jerami Grant

Now, finding a spot for the No. 1 pick in the draft on a team that went 20-52 should seem easy. But is it?

Who is getting benched? Jerami Grant and  Saddiq Bey are currntly on Team USA. Not them. Hayes? He was starting when he didn’t deserve it, they are not making him a sub now that he looks good.

Plumlee? Guy had a good year and, if he moves to the bench, you want Isaiah Stewart becoming a third-stringer? Certainly not.

Diallo will probably cost Detroit a bunch of money to bring back, as he is a restricted free agent in a weak market. Are the Pistons going to pay, say $12-13 million a year, for a sub?

So who gets knocked out of the starting lineup is a little trickier than one would think.

We realize that 99.9% of Pistons fans want then to draft Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham. But, like GM Troy Weaver, we will do our due diligence. Who th No.1 pick replaces, has to be factor to be considered when making the choice.

It is generally agreed upon by most experts that four players stand above the rest in the draft: Cunningham, Gonzaga point guard Jalen Suggs, USC center Evan Mobley and Ignite G-League wing Jalen Green.

So let’s take each prospect, and see which Pistons starter … is no longer a starter.

Jalen Suggs in, Killian Hayes out

Suggs had the Zags as the top team in the country right up until the NCAA championship game, when they got blasted by Baylor. They could have been done in the semifinals, but Suggs hit a l-o-n-g three-pointer at the buzzer against UCLA to win the game.

Despite his outside shooting heroics, Suggs is not great beyond the arc. He did not make a three-pointer in 13 of Gonzaga’s 30 games.

A really good point guard but not much of a shooter. Detroit kind of already has that in Killian Hayes.

Coach Dwane Casey has said he does not mind having two ballhandlers in the game. But to start two guards, and neither can shoot from outside, is a different story. The Pistons already have a problem scoring as it is; to start a poor shooting backcourt just makes the problem worse.

In the future, Hayes or Suggs could learn to be good outside shooters. But it is not happening by the opener in November, 2021. Someone is headed to the bench.

That someone is Hayes. No.1 trumps No. 7. You think, after waiting 51 years for a No. 1 pick, fans are going to go for that player being a nice, bench piece? Uh-uh.

So if Suggs is the pick, Killian Hayes comes off the bench.