I think it’s worse than 2013 class.
I remember the Pistons fans raging at the KCP pick, but KCP turned out to be a solid player though it took him a while to figure out his game. It’s one of the few hits from this class. lol
2 Likes
Piston fans raged solely because Pistons picked KCP over Trey Burke. Had very little to do with KCP.
Thinking more about it; was the UofM Piston fans who were the most enraged. MSU Piston fans probably thought it was a wise move
4 Likes
I really liked the KCP pick at the time. It’s the most Pistons thing possible that he’s played all of his best basketball elsewhere.
I hate to be a broken record here but I don’t think it’s a coincidence or bad luck that many players play best elsewhere.
1 Like
This is accurate and the franchise is poorly run, but at the same time if you put KCP or Bruce Brown on the current Pistons team are they moving the needle? KCP’s two highest scoring seasons in the NBA were with Detroit, but they were still bad. Those are really nice pieces for a good team to have, but they aren’t going to make a bad team good. At the end of the day, they are still role players and the Pistons need difference makers before the role players will become valuable to winning.
One of these years the Pistons need to actually find a great player in the draft rather than missing on every pick (Booker and Mitchell and Maxey and Haliburton, etc.) Do your job. Find a guy.
4 Likes
I remember some wanting CJ McCollum too, which would’ve been a better pick. Most, including myself, wanted Trey. The Pistons were lacking a guy who could make big shots and Trey had just shown us he could make them. I recall him having a good game vs. the Pistons in his rookie year and it seemed like he was proving to be that kind of player. However, he became a journeyman and is now out of the league, while KCP has put together a respectable career and played a decent role on two championship teams. Not that the Pistons benefited from any of this.
KCP brought defense but didn’t have consistent shooting until after his years with the Pistons. Here, he would usually have one really nice offensive game along with four or five below average games. If we’d had a LeBron or Davis or Jokic him being a 4th or 5th option would’ve been fine.
2 Likes
No obviously not they are scalable guys to put around stars, which this franchise can’t produce or develop
1 Like
I had bought into the crazy Giannis film and wanted the Pistons to swing for the fences.
2 Likes
It could’ve been one of the very rare occasions where we’ve gotten more draft-value than the slot we were picking at.
Of course, I had no clue Giannis would end up being an MVP caliber player, but he was the one I was hoping they’d draft.
2 Likes
I totally get the grousing about how fully the Pistons have earned their cruddy draft picks but I do have some sympathy for how hard it is to draft teens on the basis of performance 4 or 5 years in the future.
I think about tennis junior rankings, which if nothing else are at least free of team effects. And yet the world’s top juniors are really quite unlikely to make it into the top 20, even the top 50. Yes, you get the guys who were number one at every age group like Federer, but there are more world #1 juniors who ‘crash’ than make it.
And those junior tennis players are free from the moral hazard of a $30 million up front contract. I’m sure the hit rate would be even worse w up front money.
1 Like
Enough picking on the Pistons. Cade was our first number one pick since Bob Lanier right? The Cavs have had three since they drafted LeBron. In that period he Pistons have the same number of championships as the Cavs.
5 Likes
now that everyone’s pushing back on the narrative i finally have the confidence to argue this point, as someone who’s not even really a pistons fan:
is anyone left over from the pistons of 2013 that drafted KCP?
and now for the comeuppance for trying to take a swing at mgl for this take, thanks to reading the pistons’ wikipedia page:
holy s***, gores has had the team since 2011? i thought he got there in like 2019. complaint withdrawn
3 Likes
The Pistons were a great organization when Bill Davidson was alive. It’s not a coincidence that the team hasn’t won a. playoff game since his passing.
2 Likes
Let’s be honest that front officess far more functional than ours, with organizational flow charts a tiny fraction of the size, and with owners who do not ignore the team for 11 months of the year and meddle deeply during the other month, and with GMs who aren’t constantly undermined pairing with coaches who aren’t constantly undermined, have wasted much more lottery talent.
We think this team wins an NCAA Natty?
https://x.com/kukhahil/status/1791089754408173854?s=46&t=9MMrM6gOVy1pXVWIuEkHnw
I would be happy once Monty and Weaver are gone. Preferably, clean house so Stefanski and Tellum are gone as well, but Tellum is buddy with Gores so he’s going to be a huge thorn to the Pistons’ success.
2 Likes
They’ll do something dumb instead but putting yourself in position for the Flaggstakes as this roster does is correct.
Altho I’d say they need to actually go get a real NBA 3 and 4 to stick between Cade, Ivey and Duren. Stewart and Fontecchio are Not It.
1 Like
Yes. They would be the favorites.