Detroit Pistons on 2nd-best All-Rookie run in team history

The Detroit Pistons’ future looks bright with Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren to build around.

The NBA announced the All-Rookie teams for the 2022-23 season and both Ivey and Duren made the 2nd team:

Unfortunately, the Rookie of the Year voting ended up being a preview for Ivey, who did get some votes for the first team but came up just short, finishing 6th overall.

Jaden Ivey ended up with 142 votes while Bennedict Mathurin had 170, even though Ivey had a stronger finish to the season and was ahead of Mathurin in most categories.

Over the last few seasons voters seem to be putting more weight in team success, and since the Detroit Pistons haven’t had any, their guys have been passed over.

This marks the third straight year that the Pistons have had at least one player on the All-Rookie team, as both Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart made it in 2020-21, Cade Cunningham made it in 2021-22 and Ivey and Duren made it this year.

But this is not the longest run of All-Rookie appearances for Detroit.

Detroit Pistons on 2nd-best rookie run in team history

Given how bad the Detroit Pistons have been at drafting over the last 15 years, you’d think this would be the best rookie run in team history, but they had a four-year stretch from 2009-2013 that had at least one All-Rookie player each year.

Let’s hope that the current rookies, 2nd and 3rd year players end up with better careers than this group:

• 2009-2010: Jonas Jerebko

Jonas! Remember this guy? He had a decent career for the Pistons and Celtics among others but never averaged double digits in a season. His 9.3 ppg as a rookie were a career high.

• 2010-11: Greg Monroe

The Moose still holds the Pistons’ rookie record for double-doubles and a had a good five-year run for the Detroit, but he couldn’t evolve with the league as it went away from traditional bigs.

• 2011-12: Brandon Knight

Did have a good NBA career, some of it with Detroit, and averaged nearly 20 ppg for the Suns, but injuries ultimately derailed him, so for Pistons’ fans he’s the guy we traded along with Khris Middleton to get Brandon Jennings.

• 2012-13: Andre Drummond
• Kyle Singler

Drummond is the only All-Star of this group and led the league in rebounding several times with the Pistons. It’s just too bad they could never put a good team around him. Kyle Singler disappeared into the badlands of Oklahoma City after 3+ years with Detroit and was never heard from again.

This list shows that making the All-Rookie team is fairly meaningless in and of itself, as many fans wouldn’t be able to pick these guys out of a lineup.

Let’s hope this current run of young talent has more success overall and helps bring the Detroit Pistons back from the dead. Adding Victor Wembanyama to the streak next season would be a great first step.