Tracking This Year’s NBA Draft Class: The 5 Best Fits For Detroit

Each Wednesday, we’ll be assessing how the top prospects of the 2013 NBA Draft are faring in college and overseas. Stick with us each week for assorted thoughts, including the biggest risers and fallers, the standouts, the sleepers and what we know and don’t know about the next NBA Draft class…

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The NBA season ends tonight and just like nearly every NBA executive, I’m at the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland. There is an array of talent here, including potential first-round picks in this upcoming draft. Let’s dive back into the team previews with the Detroit Pistons.

Here is the NBA Draft Fast Five.

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ONE: What Do We Know About The Detroit Pistons?
Over the past four years, the Pistons have selected in the top 15 four times, including three top-10 picks in Greg Monroe (No. 7), Brandon Knight (No. 8) and Andre Drummond (No. 9). Those three are undoubtedly the team’s core moving forward, but poor decisions in free agency have prevented this team from building for the future.

Next season, the Pistons are committed only to Rodney Stuckey ($8.5 million), Charlie Villanueva (player option for $8.58 million), Jonas Jerebko ($4.5 million), Viacheslav Kravtsov ($1.5 million), Kyle Singler ($1.045 million), Kim English ($788K) and Khris Middleton ($762K) outside of the three core players.

As a team, they have been in the bottom third of the league in offensive production and in the bottom half of the league in defensive efficiency. For a team like that, best player available all the way. No time to be picky.

TWO: What Do They Need?
If the season ended today (it does), the Pistons would be slotted with the seventh-best odds in the lottery, tied with the Washington Wizards. In that spot, they will likely miss out on some of the top prospects that fit their immediate needs, but again, talent is the most important factor.

Adding another perimeter player that can play both ends, or at least get the ball in the hoop, would be beneficial for the Pistons long-term because of their offensive woes. Knight was drafted to be the team’s point guard of the future, but if a pure point guard falls to them in the lottery, it could help stimulate the offense.

THREE: Stock Falling
Not many prospects this year have decided to stay in school, but with Marcus Smart returning to Oklahoma State, a surefire top-five pick is off the board. Smart feels he has the opportunity to compete with next year’s top prospects and become a great basketball player in the process. He is wired a little differently and values winning, the college experience, and improving as a player. Those intangibles led to his decision to return. His stock is not “falling” because he no longer has stock, at least this year, but there is little doubt that he will next year.

FOUR: Stock Rising
With the return of Smart and the declaration of Michael Carter-Williams, there is no other player that benefits more greatly because of that decision. MCW was falling after his late season performances from being a top-10 type prospect to a late lottery pick. He is going to get the looks that Smart was as the draft’s best big, dynamic point guard.

Keep reading to see which five players are the best fits in the draft for Detroit…

FIVE: Quick Hitter
To return to school or to declare for the NBA Draft is one of the toughest decisions that a 17-20-year-old kid has to make in their life. It is not as easy as us pundits make it sound — there is a lot that has to go into this type of decision.

Different kids come from different backgrounds, making the decision more complex than meets the eye. They have to decipher information coming at them from all angles with family and friends preaching their greatness to them. Then scouting services have them ranked up-and-down the totem pole, giving them a broad range to figure out where they might actually fall on draft night.

Russ Smith struggled with this decision after coming off of a national championship. His stock was as high as possible, but conflicting reports and information about his range made projections cloudy. Then you have Marcus Smart returning as a surefire top-five pick and Phil Pressey, Vander Blue and others entering the draft as potentially undrafted prospects.

Weighing the concept of going professional, staying in school, and everything that comes with that type of decision (supporting their family, stepping out of poverty, and gaining your education) is nothing to make light of.

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Top 5 Fits For Detroit Right Now

1. Ben McLemore: 6-5, 185 pounds – Fresh., Kansas
Stats: 15.9 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 49.5 percent FG, 42.0 percent 3PT
There is not a better combination of shooting and athleticism in this year’s draft class. Adding in McLemore to the fold could fix some of the issues on both ends for the Pistons.

2. Otto Porter: 6-8, 200 pounds – Soph., Georgetown
Stats: 16.2 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.8 SPG, 48.0 percent FG
The best five-tool player in the draft is Porter and he could bring stability to both ends of the floor.

3. Victor Oladipo: 6-5, 214 pounds – Junior, Indiana
Stats: 13.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 2.2 SPG, 59.9 percent FG
The Pistons of old were known as great defensive teams and they have not had a team, let alone a player, that exemplifies that style recently. Oladipo is a tornado of energy that could be a difference-maker on that end of the floor.

4. Shabazz Muhammad: 6-5, 225 pounds – Fresh., UCLA
Stats: 17.9 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 0.8 APG (27 total), 44.3 percent FG
He is a scorer by nature, which solves half of the team’s problems, but he is neither a defender nor a playmaker. Muhammad has some upside on the perimeter as a scorer, but not as a defender or shot creator.

5. Michael Carter-Williams: 6-6, 185 pounds – Soph., Syracuse
Stats: 11.9 PPG, 7.3 APG, 2.7 SPG, 39.3 percent FG
Yes, the Pistons already have Knight, but he can play off the ball and MCW is a great playmaker with the ball, taking pressure off of Knight and freeing him up to score more.

Long story short, the Pistons need to add talent to the perimeter with quality depth already in the frontcourt to build from. Any of these prospects would help the current and long-term development of the team.

Who should the Pistons draft?

Follow Kristofer on Twitter at @NBADraftInsider.

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