The Detroit Pistons already have a lot of young prospects on the roster. It might behoove them to use their second-round pick in the NBA Draft on a player who might not come to training camp for a year or two.
Pistons general manager Troy Weaver has always maintained he does not want a team full of just young, inexperienced players. He says he will always make sure the Pistons have some veterans the kids can look up to and learn from.
The roster that the Pistons ended the season had only five players older than 24-years-old (and one of them was late G-League pickup Braxton Key).
Having the No. 5 pick in the draft is definitely an opportunity to add talent to the Pistons roster. But it also means another young player on the team. Keegan Murray is the oldest projected draft possibility for Detroit at 22-years-old.
So it might be a smart move for the Pistons, in the second round, where they have the 46th pick, to draft a player for the future.
According to NBA rules, if a player is drafted but chooses to play for a European club, the NBA team that drafted him retains his rights. The most famous example is Manu Ginobli, who was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs but waited three years before joining them.
Last season, Detroit had three second-round selections. The first two, Isaiah Livers and Luka Garza, made the team while the third, Balša Koprivica, is a 7-foot-1 center who went back to play in his native Serbia following summer league.
There is now another tall player from the Adriatic area who might be worth a flier in the second round: Zvonimir Ivisic.
A 7-foot-2 center out of Croatia, Ivisic is rated as the 11th best center in the draft by NBA Draft Room.