2 young players the Pistons should develop, 2 to give up on
2 young players the Pistons should develop, 2 to give up on
Give up: Jared Rhoden
If I had to lodge a complaint about the Pistons’ player development last season, it would be with the way they used their two-way contracts and G-League roster.
Detroit got absolutely nothing from either last season, which was a failure of player development.
We saw former two-way players as major contributors in the playoffs this past season, and the good teams regularly find guys outside the top of the draft who can come in and make an impact, which is one of the reasons teams like Denver and Miami are in the playoffs nearly every year.
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Detroit won 17 games last season and had a ton of injuries, yet Jared Rhoden still only played in 14 games for Detroit, mainly in mop-up duty. His G-League numbers weren’t bad, but count me out on any player who couldn’t get minutes on the worst team (and one of the youngest) in the NBA.
If Rhoden couldn’t get some run on that team, when will he? Eugene freaking Omoruyi played 40 games for the Pistons last season. Kevin Knox played 63 and RJ Hampton played 47 total games. If you can’t beat out those guys for minutes, it’s hard to imagine a roster that you could make.
It feels like the Detroit Pistons should have gone in a different direction this season but instead doubled down on last year’s mistakes. I hope Jared Rhoden proves me wrong and I am cheering for him, but I’d be surprised if he ever cracks an NBA roster.