In his pre-draft media talk, Pistons general manager Troy Weaver obviously wasn’t going to give away who the team plans to select with the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
At this point, it’s something of a game of cat-and-mouse, trying to provide some context, but it’s also an exercise in making sure that everyone knows that they are doing their due diligence in making sure that they make the right pick.
As with many No. 1 picks, there is plenty of speculation about what the Pistons will do with the pick — whether they’ll do what most people expect and take Cade Cunningham, the most well-rounded player, or trade and accumulate more assets for their rebuild.
Having the No. 1 pick is the prized position, but it’s not as easy as it may seem.
“I said from the onset that we were going to have a process and we’re going to turn over every stone — and that’s what we’re doing,” Weaver said Tuesday. “Everybody’s made the pick but us, but we’re going to continue to do our work and turn over every stone and land where we’re going to land. We’re confident in our work and we’re enjoying the process.”
Much of the talk has centered on the Pistons looking to trade down, potentially to No. 2 or No. 3 to take wing Jalen Green, who played for the G League Ignite last season. The assumption is that there would be several other assets along with the pick this year, but on the surface it’s becoming somewhat a referendum on whether the Pistons like Cunningham or Green more.
Weaver didn’t shy away from saying that there have been some offers made, but he obviously didn’t go into specifics.
“I can’t really discuss their offers or what’s been out there,” Weaver said. “Don’t believe what you read, but we’re doing our due diligence and we’ll look at every scenario and then I’ll do my best for the Pistons.”
The pre-draft rumors have run the gamut, including that Cunningham had a mediocre workout and Green’s was excellent. Pistons fans will remember that in the 2003 draft, the reports were that Darko Milicic had a very good workout — and everyone knows how that pick ended up.
Weaver, though, doesn’t seem to be seduced by any one thing in the draft process, and indicated that there’s much more to consider than just the individual workout.
“It’s just a piece of the puzzle, like everything else. The body of work (counts), as do the numbers,” he said. “We’ll look at the numbers, believe our eyes and our intelligence, but the workout is just another piece of the puzzle. It’s not like weighted at all, so we’re not drafting a player off a workout — that’s for sure.”
rod.beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard