Up until last season, the Detroit Pistons had never had the 5th pick in the NBA Draft, but after falling in the Draft Lottery two nights ago, it’s going to happen again this year.
The 5th slot in the NBA Draft has been a fairly strong one since the lottery first started in 1985 and has yielded surprisingly few busts over that span.
Yes, there are guys like Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Jonathan Bender, Alex Len and Mario Hezonja, but far more often the 5th pick has yielded solid but not spectacular players like Jonas Valanciunas, Ricky Rubio, Mike Miller and Juwan Howard.
But there have also been superstars, including some of the best players to ever play the game, which is what the Detroit Pistons hope they will eventually have with last year’s #5 pick Jaden Ivey.
Starting from 1985, here is a ranking of the top-10 players to be chosen with the #5 pick, a list that had to exclude some quality players like Darius Garland, who just missed the cut.
Detroit Pistons: Ranking the top-10 #5 picks of the lottery era
#10: Steve Smith
Steve Smith only made one All-Star team in his 14-year career, but in that time he was one of the best scoring shooting guards in the NBA. There are some current #5 picks who could surpass him eventually, but he had a long and productive NBA career.
#9: De’Aaron Fox
Fox made the All-Star team for the first time this season, and if things go right for Jaden Ivey, he could eventually follow in his path as a playmaking guard who can score in bunches from all over the court.
#8: Kevin Love
Love is a 5-time All-Star who is still contributing to the Miami Heat. He has led the league in rebounding and was really one of the pioneers of the stretch big, shooting 37 percent from long range over his career on high volume.
Detroit Pistons: Ranking the top-10 #5 picks of the lottery era
#7: Trae Young
This may be a bit premature, as Young has only been in the league for five seasons and made two All-Star appearances. But in that time he has averaged over 25 points and nine assists per game and is currently one of the best scoring point guards in the league.
#6: Mitch Richmond
Younger fans won’t remember Richmond, but the man was an absolute bucket. He made six All-Star appearances in a row and ended up averaging over 21 points per game for his career. In one of his All-Star years he shot 44 percent from 3-point range on over six attempts per game. Richmond would be a force in the modern NBA as he was when he played.
#5: Vince Carter
Vince Carter played until he was 43-years-old, amassing more than 1,500 games played, third most in NBA history. Fans who only saw the latter half of his career may forget that at one point he was the most exciting player in the league and made 10 straight All-Star game appearances.
#4: Ray Allen
Ray Allen is another guy who had a long and productive career in the NBA. He’s one of the greatest shooters to ever play the game and hit one of the All-Time most clutch shots in NBA history in the NBA Finals for Miami. Allen made 10 All-Star appearances over the course of his lustrous career.
Detroit Pistons: Ranking the top-10 #5 picks of the lottery era
#3: Kevin Garnett
One of the most intense competitors on this list, Garnett was one of the best two-way players in the league for most of his long career that spanned nearly 1,500 games. Garnett made the All-Star team a whopping 15 times, led the NBA in rebounding four years in a row and was the defensive anchor of a title team.
#2: Dwyane Wade
This one hurts, as the Detroit Pistons could have drafted Dwyane Wade instead of Darko back in the day, a mistake that cost them dearly and set off nearly two decades of ineptitude in the draft.
Wade is arguably the greatest shooting guard of all time and made 12 straight All-Star appearances, 13 total. He won multiple titles and played over 1,000 games.
#1: Scottie Pippen
I’m putting Pippen here because he is a six-time champion who was arguably the greatest defender to ever play the game. Pippen was the prototype of the modern wing, as he was arguably the best two-way player in the league not named Michael Jordan. MJ certainly took some of Pippen’s shine, but Scottie got the same Bulls to the Eastern Conference Finals without Michael, so he was very good in his own right. A member of the Dream Team and one of the NBA’s top forwards of all time, Pippen is arguably the best 5th pick to play in the modern era.