The NBA Draft Lottery didn’t provide a miracle for the Detroit Pistons, who currently find themselves in the purgatory that is the late lottery at No. 12. This is the area that no team wants to reside in, between making the playoffs (and collecting that playoff revenue, even if for a brief four games) and being bad enough to earn the chance for a franchise changing talent at the top of the draft.
That’s not to say there haven’t been those that have made lemonade out of lemons in the late lottery, but those examples tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule. To get the most value out of the 12th overall pick, you would usually have to take the risk on a player with loads of upside but a low floor should he fail to develop. For a general manager, that can be intriguing. For a head coach, a headache.
So, it should come as no surprise that in Detroit, where coach Stan Van Gundy also serves as the president of basketball operations, the Pistons aren’t too keen on keeping the No. 12 pick. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Pistons are hoping to flip the 12th pick for a veteran that can help them get out of that late lottery purgatory.
NBA Draft scuttle: Hearing Detroit is open to discussing trades for its No. 12 overall pick in hopes of acquiring more of a win-now veteran.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 30, 2017
The Pistons went all-in on a young core, locking up Andre Drummond, Tobias Harris, and Reggie Jackson to long term deals that eat up a significant chunk of their salary cap space, and their best shooter, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, is a restricted free agent this summer that figures to command a high price. There’s little room for the Pistons to make any improvements on the free agent market, especially should they re-sign Caldwell-Pope — which could have them flirting with the tax line, which isn’t ideal for a team the missed the playoffs. So, it stands to reason that, if they aren’t enthralled with the prospects expected to be there at 12, that they would look to move that pick to get veteran help they will otherwise struggle to obtain this offseason.
The Pistons will have to package the pick with another player to make it work within the salary cap, but they have plenty of mid-level sized deals that could be shipped out in order to bring in added help, provided they can find a trade partner that finds value in the 12th selection. Jackson is a player that was reportedly dangled at the trade deadline, and we’ll have to see if Detroit will look to make a blockbuster deal with Jackson and their pick to shed salary and begin retooling the roster that is otherwise locked into place.
First-round picks are always valuable, but it’s hard to imagine the Pistons being able to get significant help for the 12th selection, that is, unless someone falls through the cracks on draft night. Expect these rumors to persist up until June 22 when the draft happens, and we likely won’t get a resolution either way until the Pistons are on the clock and the prospects available are known.
