Pistons may abandon their previous draft strategy after fruitless bust

The Detroit Pistons will have the 21st pick in the 2026 Draft and may choose a player who can help them right away instead of a long-term project. 

The day’s biggest losers were the Pacers and Nets, who tanked away their seasons but dropped out of the top four. This was especially painful for Indiana, who was hoping to keep a top four pick to go along with Ivica Zubac, but now just paid the premium price of a top five pick to go with an unprotected pick in 2029 and Bennedict Mathurin. Yikes.

The Pistons were happy to be out of the lottery proceedings again, but did move up substantially in the first round, so have a chance to get a player, but it will be curious to see which approach they take coming off a wildly successful season. 

The Detroit Pistons need talent one way or another 

The Pistons have mostly shot for upside in recent drafts, as they were terrible prior to last season and didn’t even have a first-round pick last year. 

They did burn a second-round pick on Bobi Klintman, who turned out to be a complete bust who never had an impact at the NBA level. 

Klintman was an upside project who hadn’t shown much except size and some skill with the ball, so the Pistons knew he wasn’t going to come in and play right away, as few second-round picks do. 

The Pistons could take that approach again, as Klintman’s projected prototype is what they will eventually need for a long-term replacement at the four.  

They could choose to go the project/upside route again with someone like Koa Peat, Allen Graves or Jayden Quaintance if any of them fall that far. 

These are all freshman with high ceilings, but not guys who are going to step in right away in play in a rotation that just won 60 games and is two wins away from the Eastern Conference Finals. 

But it’s never bad to have high upside talent in the pipeline, and the Pistons may feel their success gives them more time to develop a player without pressure. 

The Pistons could look for a guy with day-one appeal 

I have seen Bennett Stirtz mocked to the Pistons a few times, which is interesting, as he is a secondary creator type who can shoot the 3-ball, which is theoretically one of the things Detroit needs. 

Stirtz is already 22 years old, so is a more mature player who may be able to contribute to the rotation right away but may not have the ceiling of some of the younger prospects. 

I don’t think the Pistons would take a huge downgrade in talent, but if they think Stirtz can be a Payton Pritchard type (super 6th man/role player who can score), Detroit could resist the lure of the nebulous upside that they missed in Klintman. 

We’ll have plenty of time to talk about the draft, but the longer the Pistons hang around, the more interesting this decision becomes. 

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