Every team in the NBA has made regrettable decisions they wish they could undo and that includes the Detroit Pistons.
This is the nature of sports, as teams are often faced with choices to try and get better in the short term at the expense of the future.
It can also go the other way, with teams making decisions based on “potential” while ignoring what is right in front of them.
For years the Detroit Pistons were a mediocre team stuck between the 8th seed the the lottery, exactly the place you don’t want to be.
This led to some poor decisions in a misguided effort to win with teams that were never very good or had mismatched parts.
In the end, all of these choices eventually led us to where we are now, and most Pistons fans are happy about the current state of the team, as they have a lot of young talent and the number one pick Cade Cunningham as the foundation of a new era.
But here are five choices they’d like to have back.
Detroit Pistons: Drafting Stanley Johnson over Devin Booker
There are plenty of draft choices the Detroit Pistons would love to go back and change, but that is true of literally every team in the NBA.
The NBA Draft is a crapshoot and outside of LeBron James, there are really no sure things.
You could easily put the 2011 Draft here, as the Pistons took Brandon Knight over Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard.
But none of those guys were considered sure bets coming out of college and Knight actually made the All-Rookie team in his first season.
Stanley Johnson, on the other hand, has pretty much been a complete bust. The crazy thing about this choice is that the Pistons desperately needed shooting at the time and Booker was sitting right there. The Pistons reportedly even told Booker he was their guy and then inexplicably pivoted to Johnson.
Stanley Johnson always looked the part but has zero basketball skills other than being a plus athlete. He’s bounced around since and most recently signed with the Bulls while Devin Booker just led his Suns to the Finals last season.