Detroit Pistons’ projected starting lineup, depth chart with James Wiseman

Detroit Pistons: Starting lineup and depth chart with James Wiseman

This season isn’t far from being over for the Detroit Pistons, as they aren’t going to be featured in the playoffs and will be pivoting to the draft and free agency before we know it.

The fit with Wiseman this season doesn’t really matter much, as Detroit stinks and will likely continue to stink, so coach Casey has the rest of the year to start to figure out how different players fit together and I am sure there will be plenty of experimenting.

But the Pistons hope to add a top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, hopefully a guy who can at least compete for a starting role, and if they get super lucky and land a top-2 pick or fall and land one of the top wings, that player could be a starter right away.

If the Pistons were lucky enough to land Victor Wembanyama, then he is immediately going to be a starter and the fit is a problem they are hoping to have. But what becomes of Wiseman? Stewart? Bagley III? The Pistons would suddenly have too many bigs and need to move guys that have little to no trade value right now. Again, this is the problem we all wish for.

But what if Detroit drops from their current spot, ends up with a pick in the 4-7 range and grabs the best wing available? That could push Bojan Bogdanovic to his more natural position at power forward and then the Pistons potentially have three bigs trying to come off the bench.

The fit with Wiseman is even more questionable moving forward whether Detroit gets lucky or not, so the Saddiq Bey trade is going to get even more complicated in the future. It’s hard to judge anything until we see how it works out, but right now Detroit has a bunch of players who aren’t great fits together and it could get worse.