Fans of the Detroit Pistons walked away from the NBA Draft Lottery disappointed, as the team fell to the 5th pick after winning just 23 games this season.
The 2022 NBA Draft doesn’t have the same amount of top-end talent as last year, but the Pistons should still be able to find an impact player who will be part of their core for a long time.
There are top guard prospects like Jaden Ivey, Shaedon Sharpe and Bennedict Mathurin, forwards like Keegan Murray, AJ Griffin or Tari Eason and even long shot center prospects like Jalen Duren and Mark Williams that the Detroit Pistons might consider.
With no consensus outside of the top-3 (and not really even there), the 2022 NBA Draft is completely impossible to predict, which may lead to more trades than usual in the first round.
We ran a poll just after the NBA Draft Lottery last night to ask fans who they thought the Detroit Pistons should take with the 5th pick and the results weren’t that surprising.
Detroit Pistons: The fan pick for the 2022 NBA Draft
I only gave the fans four options, so obviously this doesn’t represent everyone, but I feel like these are the four guys most people are going to rally around:
Well, let's do a quick poll. Which guy would you want to pick at #5?
— PistonPowered (@PistonPowered) May 18, 2022
As you can see, Jaden Ivey edged out Shaedon Sharpe for the top spot, while Keegan Murray (Dick Vitale’s choice fo the Pistons) came in third and AJ Griffin fourth.
It’s interesting that Griffin, who definitely provides a skill the Detroit Pistons need as a 3-point shooter, didn’t get slightly more love, but other than that, these results are pretty much as expected, as Ivey has gotten way more attention as a prospect than the rest of these guys.
Ivey has been compared to guys like Donovan Mitchell because of his athleticism and elite first step, while Sharpe is more of a mystery who will use a strong pre-draft workout to propel himself up the board.
Keegan Murray could be the choice if the Pistons are definitely trading Jerami Grant, as they could take him and then grab the best guard available with the pick they got in the Grant trade.
But the fans may be right on this one, as I think it is most likely that the Pistons take Ivey or Sharpe, depending on which one is there.
It wasn’t the outcome we wanted but the Detroit Pistons still have a lot of ways to add talent and improve next season.