Well, how about that? You wanted a little luck?
You got it.
And then some — after all those years of falling in the draft lottery, and all the years of struggle during the season. Not just with the Pistons, but with every other team that plays in this city.
No stretch of sports fandom here has been worse than the last five years. No stretch more depressing. Until Tuesday night, when the heavens finopened and sent the No. 1 pick Detroit’s way.
Finally.
Mercifully.
Thankfully.
Praise God?
“Praise God,” indeed.
So said Troy Weaver, the man in charge of the NBA team that just won the lottery, the man who found two all-rookie performers in last year’s draft, the man now given the chance to add Cade Cunningham, the most gifted player in this year’s draft.
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How’s that for some lottery luck? The first No. 1 pick for the Detroit Pistons since 1970. That pick — 51 years ago — turned out pretty well, in Bob Lanier. Since then, though? Just five other top-five picks. (And let’s not talk about the most recent.)
Credit Weaver for moving on from a couple of veterans who might’ve hurt the Pistons’ lottery odds. Credit him for turning to the youngsters. Credit Dwane Casey for getting them to compete. Credit the karma that ensued.
“Call it whatever you want,” said Weaver. “I’m just a believer, period. However, you want to slice it.”
Not just a believer in a higher power, or in building something the right way, but in building something in a specific way – the Pistons’ way. Listen to Weaver long enough and you’ll hear it in the words he chooses.
He’s not rebuilding, but “restoring.” He doesn’t just aim to win, but to win in a way that’s recognizable to this city, to this region. That’s why he asked Ben Wallace to represent the franchise in the draft lottery.
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“He is a symbol,” said Weaver. “Ben is a team-first guy. He’s about everything we want to be about. Couldn’t have picked a better person to represent us than Ben Wallace.”
Wallace called himself the “luck.”
Who are we to argue?
As Weaver noted, Wallace was a guy who went undrafted and made the Hall of Fame. Diving. Sprinting. Anticipating. Bullying … in the best possible way.
Weaver isn’t looking for that in the No. 1 pick. But he is looking for that spirit: The Pistons spirit. And even if you dismiss his homages to the past as nothing more than rainbows, you can’t deny his vision.
And that it’s working.
It’s clear that Weaver didn’t need the top pick this year. Not after watching him work magic in last year’s draft and free agency period, compressed into less than a week in 2020.
But, boy, does it help.
Cunningham may not be LeBron James or Kevin Durant — outliers who combined size, quickness, explosiveness and skill into a likely Hall of Fame package, nearly from their NBA debuts — but he doesn’t need to be. Nor does a team need that kind of all-timer to win big.
He just needs to build on what he showed during his single season at Oklahoma State. The 19-year-old is a 6-foot-8 point guard, who can shoot, get his own shot, defend, rebound and run an offense — though that isn’t the half of it.
He doesn’t get flustered or forced into speeding up in the clutch. He digs pressure — check out his game winners or go-ahead buckets the last two minutes of games last season. And he changes speeds.
What makes him special is his vision and his patience to use it. He sees lanes and possibilities before they happen. He can pass off the dribble with either hand. He can see over the top of double teams.
He reminds some of Luka Doncic in this way. And while he isn’t as strong — yet — as Doncic, he’s got a softer feel, and is a better all-around shooter.
That’s a lofty comparison, no doubt. It’s also why he’s the consensus No. 1 pick among NBA scouts and draft cognoscenti.
His game is the future. It’s where the league is headed. Which makes it easy to imagine where he might lead this franchise.
You could hear that giddy possibility in the background noise when Weaver held a virtual news conference from a hotel in Chicago — he’s there for the NBA combine. You could hear the noise in the videos posted from the team headquarters in Detroit.
Some swore the city shook when the league announced the Pistons won the lottery. And if it didn’t, surely it felt like it did. It’s been that kind of decade around here.
Well, no more.
For the first time in more than 50 years, the Pistons have the No. 1 pick. It’s almost inconceivable.
How’s that for a change in luck?
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.