Every team in the NBA has a list of draft busts, as it is an imperfect science that requires a whole lot of guess work and luck. This includes the Detroit Pistons, whose modern draft history is littered with guys who never made it in the league.
Detroit is hoping that has all changed in recent years, as Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart are off to promising starts, Cade Cunningham looks like a future superstar and Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren hope to be as well.
If Cade does become the superstar we all think he will be, the Pistons will have gone nearly three decades in between them, with a whole lot of busts along the way, which is one of the big reasons the team has mostly been bad or mediocre since the Goin’ to Work days.
But what if you made a team of Detroit Pistons’ draft busts? There were plenty to choose from, but here is the Pistons’ all-time draft bust starting five.
Detroit Pistons: All-time draft bust starting five
Center: Darko Milicic (2003)
We’ll start with the easiest one, as Milicic is not only the Pistons’ biggest draft bust, but one of the biggest in NBA history when you consider he was taken second in a draft filled with future Hall-of-Famers.
Darko actually had a 9-year career, which is not bad considering he never averaged double digits in a season and only once averaged over six rebounds per game.
He did win a ring with the Pistons, though he only appeared in 96 games total over parts of three seasons in Detroit, where he was like a bleached blonde victory cigar, only appearing once the game was already in hand.
He’ll always be the guy who was taken just before Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dywane Wade, and we’ll always wonder what might have been had the Detroit Pistons just taken one of the future hall-of-famers instead of Darko.
Detroit Pistons: All-time draft bust starting five
Shooting Guard: Rodney White (2001)
White was taken 9th overall by the Detroit Pistons, and though he wasn’t really a shooting guard, I am going to put him here because the group of possible forwards for this team is already big.
White played exactly 16 games for the Detroit Pistons in his one season with the team and averaged a whopping 3.5 points per game before being traded to Denver for two players and a future first-round pick, which turned out to be a great deal for Detroit.
He didn’t fare much better in Denver, though he showed some signs in his second season, bumping his scoring average up to nine per game. In the end, White played just four seasons in the NBA and made just 21 starts in that time before finishing his career with multiple teams overseas.
Point Guard: Mateen Cleaves (2000)
This really was a grim era of drafting for the Detroit Pistons, as their all-time bust starting backcourt was taken in back-to-back years.
Cleaves is from Flint and was one of the most decorated college players of his day for Michigan State, but came to the Pistons with the 14th pick at already 23-years-old.
Like White, Cleaves lasted just one season for the Pistons before being traded for Jon Barry and a first-round pick (another good deal for Detroit, who was better at trading their picks than choosing them).
Cleaves played for six seasons and never averaged more than 5.4 points per game. He was a harsh lesson about hometown picks and why college success does not always translate to the NBA.
Detroit Pistons: All-time draft bust starting five
Small Forward: Austin Daye (2009)
There were a lot of forwards to choose from here and I almost went with Stanley Johnson because he was a top-10 pick, but the Stanimal is still in the NBA and somehow just 26-years-old, and Daye was already out of the league by that age.
Daye was a 6-foot-11 forward who could shoot and showed promise in his first two seasons. He started 16 games in his second year and shot over 40 percent from 3-point range. But it was all downhill from there, as Daye never averaged even five points per game after his second season.
He was traded after playing parts of four seasons in Detroit and then played for four different teams before eventually playing in Russia and Israel among many other places.
Daye was the 15th pick in a mediocre draft, but his promise coupled with the disappointing results land him on the all-bust team.
Power Forward: Sekou Doumbouya (2019)
Doumbouya is a classic case of “Be careful what you wish for.” For years, fans of the Detroit Pistons had been begging the team to take a risk on a high-ceiling player in the draft after years of taking guys like Luke Kennard.
Doumbouya looked the part, but it never translated to the court, where he couldn’t shoot, wasn’t very athletic and at times just flat-out looked like a guy who had never seen a basketball before.
He was traded from the Pistons along with Jahlil Okafor for a salary dump and four second-round picks, which now seems like a fleecing considering Doumbouya is 21-years-old and currently not in the NBA, though someone might give him a look in the G-League.
Sekou had a couple of flashes for the Detroit Pistons, but in the end, was one of the biggest draft busts in recent history, which is saying a lot given Detroit’s lack of success in the draft.
Troy Weaver is trying to usher in a new generation of talent and hopes to avoid the busts, but the clock is now ticking on Killian Hayes, who is trying to avoid joining this list.