For the first time in years, the Detroit Pistons weren’t heavily involved in the NBA Draft, only selecting Chaz Lanier with the 37th pick, a pick that could end up being the steal of the draft according to a recent survey of NBA executives on ESPN.
Lanier received votes for the question “Which rookie will be the biggest draft steal?” which is a nice vote of confidence for a guy who went in the second round. Most of the votes went to higher-profile first-round picks, so for Lanier to get a mention is a great sign for the Pistons’ chances of landing an impact player.
Hitting on later picks is vitally important under the new tax laws, but it’s also becoming more difficult. As Trajan Langdon noted, more second-round prospects are staying in college to chase NIL money, which has limited the pool of college players.
We saw that in this year’s draft, where many of the second-round selections were older upperclassman (like Lanier) who have lower ceilings than some of the raw prospects we’ve seen taken in the second round in the past.
But these players may also be ready to contribute right away as older guys with experience, and that’s what Lanier hopes to do with the Pistons.
Will Chaz Lanier make the Detroit Pistons’ rotation?
It’s tough to see a world where Lanier makes the Pistons’ rotation right away, as they already have nine players who are locks, leaving few remaining minutes to go around.
Marcus Sasser has to be ahead of Lanier on the depth chart at this point and will likely get the first shot at the fringe guard minutes that remain.
Sasser is due a raise after next season, so he’s entering a pivotal year of his career: He either has to be a bigger part of the rotation or the Pistons may look elsewhere to fill that back-of-the-rotation spot with a cheaper player, and Lanier could be that guy.
Lanier is a prolific 3-point shooter who can knock down a variety of long-range shots, but the questions are whether he can play defense well enough to stay on the floor or offer anything offensively other than 3-point shots coming off screens.
His Summer League debut wasn’t entirely encouraging, but he’d be asked to do far less on the Pistons' real roster and would have better teammates to get him the ball. The Pistons would love to have another high-volume 3-point shooter coming off the bench and there is an outside chance that Lanier will get a shot at those fringe minutes at some point next season.