The Detroit Pistons just finished off yet another mediocre season after trading for Blake Griffin to make a playoffs push, wasting yet another year of Andre Drummond’s young career and leaving Stan Van Gundy in the hot seat once again.
Ever since winning their last NBA Championship, the Pistons haven’t been able to be considered true title contenders, mostly because their scouting has been mediocre to say the least over the last decade.
Detroit has constantly struck out of good prospects over the last couple of seasons, while their young talents wind up being merely flukes, excluding Andre Drummond of that list, for obvious reasons.
Today, we’re going to let you know about their top 5 Draft mistakes or the past 10 years.
5. Stanley Johnson (2015 NBA Draft)
Stanley Johnson looked as he was going to be a major stud for ages, showing a complete two-way skill set throughout his NCAA stint and moreover during Summer League and the preseason, but was never able to become a reliable scoring option while his defensive expertise also took a major downfall.
Johnson went as high as 8th overall in 2015 out of Arizona University, and even though is still pretty early on his career, it’s safe to assume that he’s never going to be able to live up to the expectations. Furthermore, the Pistons could’ve landed Myles Turner, Kelly Oubre, Terry Rozier, Larry Nance Jr or Devin Booker instead.
4. Austin Daye (2009 NBA Draft)
Coming out of Gonzaga University, everybody had such high hopes on Austin Daye, a tweener forward who’s only remarkable accolade is merely being a part of the 2014 Spurs Championship team, and that’s not even playing in the league anymore after 8 games with the Atlanta Hawks in 2015.
Daye was never able to establish himself as a consistent role player and was just passed around the league, going as high as 15th in 2009, when Detroit would’ve been way better off by drafting Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Darren Collison, Taj Gibson, Danny Green, Patrick Beverley or Jrue Holiday.
3. Brandon Knight (2011 NBA Draft)
Brandon Knight like he was going to be a standout baller throughout the first couple of months of his NBA career, proving vast ball handling skills and a sweet scoring touch from all over the floor, but after being dealt to the Bucks and then to the Suns, his career took a major downfall up to the point where he wasn’t even a part of the team’s rotation.
Now, trying to make an NBA comeback after suffering a season-ending injury, the former 8th overall pick is looking like a major bust. To make things even worse, the Pistons could’ve used that pick to get Kemba Walker, one of the Morris twins, Nikola Mirotic; or franchise players like Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson.
2. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (2013 NBA Draft)
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was having a great tenure with the Detroit Pistons and everybody was truly surprised when the team decided not to match any offers he got as an unrestricted free agent, letting him just walk away for free after a career year on his third season playing at the Palace.
After not getting anything out of him, Detroit has to be really regretting to have drafted him with the 8th overall spot in 2013, when they could’ve landed Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Andre Roberson, Tim Hardaway Jr, Rudy Gobert, CJ McCollum or Giannis Antetokounmpo.
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1. Greg Monroe (2010 NBA Draft)
Not so long ago, it seemed like the Detroit Pistons had found a very dominant twin towers duo with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond down low, but his lack of defensive awareness and poor spacing made the team moved on from him after he failed to impress and improve after a couple of seasons.
Monroe was drafted with the 7th overall pick in a very stacked draft, while Detroit would’ve been way better off if they’ve used that pick to get Paul George, Eric Bledsoe, Avery Bradley or Gordon Hayward instead.
