Expect Pistons To Go Big At No. 8
There's no mystery what kind of player the Pistons need to draft with their lottery pick. It's simply a matter of whether their desired choice will still be on the board at the No. 8 overall spot.
For a team that finished last in defensive field-goal percentage, the Pistons want a big man that can provide a menacing presence in the paint. The versatility of last year's lottery pick, Greg Monroe, gives the front office the flexibility to seriously consider both power forwards and centers.
Even in a supposedly weak draft, president of basketball operations Joe Dumars believes he'll find a frontcourt partner for Monroe. They also have two more picks in the June 23 draft. The Pistons traded away their own second-round pick but have two others acquired from Toronto (No. 33 overall) and Denver (No. 52).
"I don't so much worry about the entire draft one through 60," he said. "I worry about the quality of the guys that you're going to get in the range that you're drafting. For us, the quality of the draft is 8-33. We've studied the thing and done our homework. So we know we can get a good player in the seven or eight range. We feel good about 33 as well."
The projected top center in the draft, 6-11 Turkish native Enes Kanter, will probably be chosen in the top five. The Pistons have targeted three other foreign players -- Bismack Biyombo, Jonas Valanciunas, Jan Vesely -- and University of Texas forward Tristan Thompson as potential selections.
Biyombo is the biggest wild card. A 6-foot-9 Congo native who played in Spain last season, Biyombo has zoomed up draft boards despite lacking an offensive game. He's been called a young Ben Wallace with a bigger wingspan because he could develop into a dominant shot blocker and defender.
The 6-10 Valanciunas is considered a true center with solid offensive skills, particularly around the rim and on pick-and-roll plays. He's got the tenacity and length to be a solid defender once his body fills out. However, the buyout from his Lithuanian Euroleague team could be a sticking point.
The 6-11 Vesely has the most polished offensive game of the quartet while Thompson made a strong impression with his defensive intensity and rebounding during his lone year with the Longhorns. At just under 6-9, he may be a bit undersized at power forward.
Dumars and his staff have spent a lot of time in Europe evaluating the international players, while Thompson is scheduled to work out for the Pistons two days before the draft.
"When you don't see as much of a guy, like the international guys, it makes your job a little bit tougher," Dumars said. "But that just means you have to dig deeper and do your homework."
While there have been rumors that the Pistons might trade their pick, that's an unlikely scenario. They want to get younger, bigger and more athletic and a high draft pick is the easiest way to do that.
Unlike the lottery selection, the Pistons will use the "best player available" approach with their second-rounders. They expect at least one of those second-rounders to make next season's roster.
SEASON HIGHLIGHT
For a team that lost its first five games and never had a winning streak longer than three games, there were no special moments on the court. The best thing that happened came less than a week before the season ended, when Tom Gores and his company, Platinum Equity, reached a definitive agreement to purchase the team and its assets from Karen Davidson, widow of long-time owner Bill Davidson. There was a palpable sense of relief and excitement at The Palace when the announcement was made, with the expectation that the sale will be approved by the league's Board of Governors and the front office can finally take bold action to improve the roster.
TURNING POINT
Public embarrassments were commonplace but nothing made the franchise look worse than the infamous shoot-around boycott in Philadelphia on Feb. 25, though no player would ever admit publicly there was one. Only six players showed up for the shoot-around and that's all Kuester and assistant coach Brian Hill -- who took over after Kuester was ejected late in the first half -- used in the game. McGrady and Stuckey, among others, were seen laughing on the bench after Kuester's ejection, making the players look even more unprofessional. Any pretense that they were still aiming for a playoff spot was vanquished that night.
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