Pistons Take Arizona's Johnson With No. 8 Pick In Draft
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (97.1 The Ticket/AP) - The Detroit Pistons selected Arizona forward Stanley Johnson with the eighth pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.
Johnson played one season for the Wildcats, averaging 13.9 points and 6.6 rebounds in 2014-15. He could fill a need for the Pistons, who have said the only opening in their starting lineup is at small forward.
Detroit had its choice of wing prospects when Duke's Justise Winslow was also available when the Pistons picked, but they went with Johnson.
During a post pick press conference Thursday night Stan Van Gundy, Detroit's coach and team president, addressed the Winslow draft question.
"We were asked, why not Winslow? The main reason is that he's from Duke and Justin Winslow was in there -- there's a little bit of a bump from that."
Gundy said this week he wasn't approaching the draft with the idea that the Pistons' pick would necessarily have to start right away.
The 6-foot-7, 245-pound Johnson was the Pac-12 freshman of the year in 2015.
"We loved his mentality. He's won everywhere. Won four start championships in high school," said Gundy.
"This guys record of success is incredible and we are really sold on the fact that this guy wants to be great. And will put in the time to be great."
It was another mid-level lottery pick for the Pistons, who were also at No. 8 in 2011 and 2013. They picked seventh in 2010 and ninth in 2012. The trend was broken last year because Detroit didn't have a first-round selection because of a previous trade.
The Pistons have been able to land solid contributors like Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond in recent drafts, but they haven't made the playoffs since 2009, and Van Gundy was hired last offseason. Detroit seems likely to lose Monroe via free agency, and the Pistons made a trade earlier this month for a potential replacement, acquiring power forward Ersan Ilyasova from Milwaukee.
That left small forward as the most glaring hole.
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