A Detroit Pistons selection if they trade up, down or stay put in 2020 NBA draft

Detroit Free Press

Omari Sankofa II
 
| Detroit Free Press

Will the Detroit Pistons move up, move down or stay put in the 2020 NBA draft

Several lottery teams, including the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors, are reportedly willing to come off of their draft picks. It could open up an opportunity for Detroit, which has the seventh pick, to either give up assets in pursuit of a higher pick, or acquire assets in exchange for a later pick. 

The Free Press talked to CBS NBA draft analyst, college basketball columnist and TV analyst Gary Parrish on Wednesday about the Pistons and the direction they should take. In his latest mock draft, Parrish has the Pistons selecting Auburn forward Isaac Okoro.

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Note: Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length. Questions from Omari Sankofa II have been bolded. 

It seems most draft analysts have between four and six players in their top tier, and the Pistons are right outside of that range at No. 7. Who do you see being a good fit for them?

Every time I update the mock draft, there are Pistons fans who insist they must take a point guard. I certainly understand, and I won’t think it’s crazy if they do. I can make the case they should. But I think when you are rebuilding, the most important thing is to get the best player regardless of the position that person plays. You’re familiar with the Grizzlies franchise, it’s where I live. I think if the Grizzlies had the seventh pick, I wouldn’t say ‘Take the best player available regardless of position,’ because if you thought the best player available was a point guard, I don’t know that you want to do that when you’ve already got Ja Morant. But outside of situations like that, I think you try to get the right guy. So we can quibble about who the right guy is, and I’m not certain that anybody knows, myself included, but if I’m running the Detroit franchise with the seventh pick … I would simply have my big board there, cross out the six names that are called first and then I would take the next guy regardless of what position he plays. 

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►Of the guys who are projected to go outside of that top tier, which widely consists of LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and then maybe Deni Avdija and Obi Toppin, who stands out?

We can reasonably assume LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman, Deni Avdija, I think those four guys are going to be gone by seven. We’re talking about a next group that probably includes Obi Toppin, Tyrese Haliburton, Killian Hayes, Onyeka Okongwu, Isaac Okoro. The Pistons might just be in love with somebody I just named. But if you look at both mock drafts, those are the names in that range. I love Toppin, I think he’s going to be terrific, so he’s available at seven, I’d take him, because if he were available at seven he would be the best player available on my board. But in my latest mock draft, I’ve got them taking Okoro. In a mock draft we did for the podcast last week, Kyle Boone, one of my colleagues, we had the Pistons go with Hayes. Either one of those guys make sense. But I wouldn’t worry about position, again, as much as I would worry about who’s going to be the better player. And reasonable people can disagree on that, and I’m not sure I feel strongly either way on if the Pistons ended up with Hayes or Okoro, or if Okongwu were to slip to there or Toppin were to slip to there. If you’re a Detroit fan, you should be happy because I think you’ve got somebody who has the potential to be somebody special with the seventh pick. 

►There’s trade talk every year, but this year is unique with a title contender in Golden State at No. 2. The Pistons could be in the mix to move up. Given the parity in this draft, is the benefit to move up as big as it would be in say, 2018, which saw the Mavericks give up a future first to move up two spots for Luka Doncic?

I do think there’s a difference between seven and two (in this draft). I don’t think there’s much of a difference between say, one and four. We always talk about drafts in this way, and we almost are never proven right. The one time where we were is 2018. People looked at that as a five-player draft. Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley, Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Jaren Jackson. I can remember talking about that in real time and saying ‘listen, if you’ve got a top-five pick, you feel pretty good that you’re getting one of those guys.’ With a little bit of hindsight, Luka Doncic is better than getting Marvin Bagley. But not everybody knew that at the time, most notably Sacramento. So that’s one where we had a top-tier identified properly, at least it appears. If you’re trying to identify that top tier this year, most people would have a LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman, Deni Avdija in some order. Maybe Obi Toppin as well, so let’s throw Obi in there and say it’s a five player top-tier. You could take those reasonably in just about any order. I don’t know that one guy is clearly more gifted than the other in terms of what they might develop into. In 2015 it was the Karl-Anthony Towns draft. 2003 it was the Lebron James draft. I don’t think there’s that kind of guy in this one. It doesn’t mean that somebody picked early won’t be great, but if you call all 30 teams, you would get probably at least four different answers from who should be picked number one. 

If you’re Detroit, moving up to two isn’t a whole lot different than moving up to number one because the player you might prefer out of that group could reasonably be there at two, or three, or four. And last year, if you wanted Zion Williamson, you better go all the way up to number one to get that done. This year, the guy you identify as the best player might be available at four. I think there’s a benefit to moving up if you can. But you are not moving up to get somebody that everybody agrees is a sure-bet future Hall of Famer, because I don’t know that anybody in this draft is somebody everybody agrees on. 

►Let’s say the Pistons reached a deal with the Warriors to acquire the second pick. Who makes the most sense from an upside standpoint for the Pistons?

Obviously it would depend on who’s first … but the top two guys for me, if I’m the Pistons, would be Ball and Edwards. I would take whichever one. If we’re assuming Minnesota takes one of them, I would take whatever one Minnesota doesn’t take. I’m also a big fan of Toppin, but just in terms of upside, which with the second pick you should be aiming for, if Ball becomes everything he can be, and Toppin becomes everything he can be, I think Ball is the better player. If Edwards becomes everything he can be, and Toppin becomes everything he can be, I think Edwards is the better player. So if I’m Detroit picking second, I swing in that direction while acknowledging, and this is the trend with the draft, not everybody becomes everything they should be.

►On the other end, if the Pistons were to reach a deal with the Celtics where they move down from No. 7 for No. 14, 26 and 30, who stands out in that late lottery-mid 20s range that you think would be a steal for Detroit?

I’m a big fan of Villanova’s Saddiq Bey, who most people have in the back in of the lottery. Some people have him just outside of the lottery. I would have him in my top-10. I don’t know what’s not to like. 6-8, combo forward, high basketball IQ, guards multiple positions, shot like 45% from 3-point range. Comes from a strong program that plays modern basketball, that has a track record for producing guys who are ready to play in the NBA, or capable of playing in the NBA. I don’t understand why he’s not higher on some people’s draft boards. 

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Kira Lewis, out of Alabama, is a point guard that really has a lot of attributes that make you think that he could, in three years, look like somebody who should’ve been picked in the top-10. I can say at CBS Sports, I work with Avery Johnson who is one of our basketball analysts, and he obviously played that position in the NBA for a long time, former NBA Coach of the Year, but more importantly, as it relates to Lewis, he recruited Lewis and coached him for a year at Alabama. And publicly and privately, he raves about his work ethic, about his talent, about everything connected to him. Avery doesn’t have to do that, not now. He’s not talking about one of his players as much as he’s talking about one of his former players. He talks about Lewis enthusiastically. That’s a good sign. 

Vanderbilt’s Aaron Nesmith is someone I like, because he has one clearly identifiable skill, and that’s his shooting. We watched these NBA Finals and the Miami Heat got there by putting multiple shooters on the court at all times. Lakers coach Frank Vogel kept juggling lineups to try to get proper shooting on the court with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. I know this sounds silly sometimes to say shooting is important, because it’s basketball. It has always been important. But it’s never been more important than it is right now at the NBA level. We’ve never experienced a time in pro basketball, at least from my perspective, where having a natural center is less important than it is right now, and having shooters is more important than it is right now. And Nesmith is the guy. He’s 6-5, 6-6, big body, really shoots it. Can he do all the other things you need him to do? We’ll see. But I know he can do one thing. Sometimes in drafts, we evaluate players and we focus on too much instead of just this one thing. Not many guys can go into the NBA and do the things that we want them to do. The ones who can are LeBron James and Kevin Durant. They’re the best players in the world. Almost everybody else, I think 90% of the league, we don’t call them specialists, but that’s what they are. They’re somebody who can really guard the perimeter. They’re bigs who can stretch the floor. They are guards who can make shots. Often in that range, when you’re not necessarily looking for the next superstar, that’s the other thing about NBA drafts. We spend months talking about these 30 guys and we like all of them, and then you look up in four years and only about six of them, seven of them matter. The rest of the guys you never talk about again as much as you talk about them in the three months leading up to the night they were selected. In that back end of the lottery range, I’m looking for guys who are going to be able to play in the NBA. So looking for that one, clear skill they already possess is a start.

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarisankofa. Read more on the Detroit Pistons and sign up for our Pistons newsletter.

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