Ringer draft experts name Pistons as biggest mistakes

When it comes to the NBA Draft, every team has their share of mistakes, including the Detroit Pistons.

If you look at past drafts, there are wrong choices every year, which is much easier to judge in hindsight. The NBA Draft is a crapshoot at times, and everybody has gotten it wrong. Two-time MVP Nikola Jokic fell to the second round, as did Draymond Green.

Guys like Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo would go much higher now and I am sure the Detroit Pistons would do it differently in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Media and draft “experts” get it wrong even more, but unlike GM’s, they get to walk away from their mistakes without any real damage done except for taking some heat on Twitter.

So I commend Kevin O’Connor and J. Kyle Mann for owning up to their biggest draft mistakes in a recent episode of The Ringer’s NBA Draft Show.

Unfortunately, their biggest whiffs in the draft happened to involve Detroit Pistons.

Ringer draft experts name Pistons as biggest mistakes

Kevin O’Connor famously (I say famously because I see him reminded of it constantly on social media) had Killian Hayes as the #1 prospect on his big board in the 2020 NBA Draft. I give KOC credit, he tried to stick with Hayes and celebrated his big games, but there is enough evidence now to know that Hayes was far from the best prospect in that draft.

O’Connor has taken his lumps on this one, as Hayes is still the league’s worst shooter and may not even go in the first round if we did that draft again today.

The pair also talked about Marvin Bagley III (a favorite of J. Kyle Mann), who will forever be known as the guy who was drafted just ahead of Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Trae Young. MBIII is a one-dimensional player who can’t stay on the floor, and the rest of those guys have gone on to be stars.

Just for good measure, the conversation touched on Stanley Johnson and Josh Jackson (at least the Pistons didn’t draft Jackson) two more guys who played for Detroit.

Hopefully the Pistons are not going to make a habit of collecting draft mistakes, either their own, or another team’s, but unless something miraculous happens, they have two of the biggest recent ones on their roster.