Detroit Pistons: Is Stanley Johnson right about being a “bust?”

Like most teams in the NBA, the Detroit Pistons have a rich history of getting it wrong in the NBA Draft.

Every team misses from time to time, but Detroit’s abysmal draft record is the primary reason they have been bad for so long.

Fans are hoping this decades-long trend is finally over with the selections of Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, but there is no denying that the draft history before that was brutal going all the way back to the early 2000’s when they whiffed on Darko Milicic.

Any recent draft bust history would likely include the name Stanley Johnson, who was the 8th pick in the 2015 draft. Johnson was supposed to be the two-way wing the Detroit Pistons have been looking for since Tayshaun Prince retired, a drought they hope is finally over with Ausar Thompson.

But Stanley Johnson took umbrage with the term “bust” on a recent episode of the TacoBout It podcast, saying that he wasn’t a bust, as a bust is someone who quits:

Fans of the Detroit Pistons badly wanted Johnson to succeed and he did have his moments with the team, so would you consider him a bust?

Detroit Pistons: Is Stanley Johnson a bust?

The word “bust” gets thrown around way too much these days, often about guys who are in their early 20’s and have barely even played. Killian Hayes was labeled a bust before his 21st birthday, and our impatient culture doesn’t allow for much nuance when it comes to development.

But when you are drafted in the top-10, expectations are much higher than for those players taken later. If Johnson had been the 28th pick instead of the 8th, he might have been labeled a late gem instead of a bust, so the difference in perception starts with where a player was drafted.

Johnson played 267 games for the Detroit Pistons, averaging 7.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists with woeful shooting splits. He was never able to hit enough shots for his defense to matter, which is something we’re seeing right now with Hayes.

Johnson will be entering his 9th season in the league even though he is still just 27-years-old, so even though he didn’t meet expectations, this is a guy who is going to have a decade-long career in the NBA. Is he good? Not really. Will he ever be? Who knows.

To me, the bust label gets used too often for players taken outside of the top-5 and should probably be reserved for NBA players who don’t have much of a career at all whether through injuries or poor performance.

Guys like Darko, Anthony Bennett, Adam Morrison and Greg Oden all immediately come to mind. For Stanley Johnson, it depends on your definition, but I don’t think he has anything to apologize to Pistons fans for, as he did give it his best and it just didn’t pan out.