The Detroit Pistons have had a sketchy history in the NBA Draft and that is being kind.
The draft that most people focus on is 2003, when the Pistons selected Darko Milicic instead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade or well, anyone else really.
You could point to Stanley Johnson over Devin Booker or Luke Kennard over Donovan Mitchell, and you’d be right, as those ended up being awful choices.
Booker and Mitchell are now superstars who have led their teams on long playoff runs while Johnson is barely in the league and Kennard is an overrated role player.
One draft that doesn’t get mentioned as often is the 2011 NBA Draft, which has to be one off the all-time worst for misses.
Just ask The Detroit Pistons who took Brandon Knight, or the Timberwolves who took Derrick Williams. How about Jan Vesely to the Wizards or Bismack Biyombo to the Kings? I’m pretty sure Tristan Thompson, Enes Kanter, Jimmer Fredette and the Moraii (Markieff and Marcus) would not go as high if teams could re-do the 2011 Draft.
It was a mess for a lot of teams, especially when you see how much All-NBA and All-Star talent was available with the first eight picks.
So let’s do those picks again to see what teams would do now, including the Detroit Pistons with the 8th pick.
Detroit Pistons: 2011 NBA Draft pick #1
Kawhi Leonard dropped to 15th in the original 2011 draft but if it were done again he would go first.
Leonard is still one of the best two-way players in the NBA, a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP who has been a mainstay on the All-NBA, All-Star and All-Defensive teams.
Detroit Pistons: 2011 NBA Draft pick #2-4
While I think Kawhi is a clear-cut choice for #1, you can definitely argue who should go next. Irving went first in the original draft and I don’t think he would fall much further than two, as he has been one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA in his career, a seven-time All Star who hit one of the biggest shots in the 2016 Finals on his way to a title with Cleveland.
This is another one that can be argued, but Butler is still one of the best two-way players in the NBA even though his career got off to a slow start.
Butler went 30th in the original 2011 NBA Draft but there is no way he’d fall outside of the top-5 if we could do it again.
Butler is now a five-time All-Star and All-Defensive player who has made All-NBA four times.
Imagine how different things might have been if the Cavaliers had teamed up Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson in this draft. Even if they had stuck with Kyrie and taken Klay over Tristan Thompson, the balance of the league might have been shifted.
I am pretty sure the Golden State Warriors wouldn’t like this scenario, but that backcourt would have been fun to watch and it might have been the Cavs, not the Warriors who ended up a dynasty.
Detroit Pistons: 2011 NBA Draft pick #5-7
The Raptors originally took Jonas Valanciunas here and I think there is an argument that they would be the one team who would keep their pick if they could do it again, as Valanciunas is still a very good player.
But the chance to pair Kemba Walker and DeMar DeRozan is too good to pass up, though who knows, having Kemba might have stopped the Raptors from acquiring Kyle Lowry, so this one could have had a domino effect.
Or they just put Lowry at the two and have the best backcourt in the NBA for years. If you are counting, that’s four out of the first five picks whose names start with K.
The Wizards chose an International center with the 6th pick in 2011, it was just the wrong one. They took Jan Vesely, who was a massive bust but probably should have taken Vucevic, who is still one of the best centers in the NBA.
Washington is definitely one of the teams that would like to do this one again.
The Kings originally took Bismack Biyombo here and then traded him to Charlotte, but if they could do it again they’d likely take Jonas Valanciunas.
Valanciunas is a quality big man who can defend and score in the post and has had a solid career for the Raptors and Memphis before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.
If the Kings made the right decision they wouldn’t be the Kings, so taking Biyombo was on brand.
Detroit Pistons: 2011 NBA Draft pick #8
The Detroit Pistons were desperate to draft a point guard in 2011, but took Brandon Knight instead of Kemba Walker, who went 9th in this draft.
The Pistons were going with the guy who they thought had the higher ceiling even though Kemba had just dominated in college, winning the title with UCONN. It didn’t make sense then and makes even less now that we’ve seen how their careers turned out.
What made this even worse is that the Pistons compounded their error by eventually trading Knight and Khris Middleton to the Bucks for Brandon Jennings. This was not a good stretch of decision making for the Detroit Pistons.
But Kemba is off the board in our re-draft, so instead the Pistons will go with Tobias Harris, a guy who ended up in Detroit eventually anyway and had one of their best single seasons of the 2010 decade.
The Pistons didn’t really need a point guard that badly and were terrible at the forward position with an older Tayshaun Prince, Jonas Jerebko, Austin Daye, Charlie Villanueva and Jason Maxiell at the position.
None of those guys were the scorer that Harris became and he is still a key contributor on a title contender in Philly.
This draft had so many misses that it is hard to pick which one was worst, but the Detroit Pistons would surely do things differently if they could do it again.