In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons drafted Kentucky guard Brandon Knight with their 8th overall pick. Other players they picked up in the draft are Duke forward Kyle Singler, and Florida F/C Vernon Macklin.
The Pistons missed out on getting Congolese heir apparent to the Ben Wallace mantle Bismack Biyombo after Charlotte jumped them to pick him up. So what do they do? They picked a guard with their top pick?!? What was on Joe D's mind?
Now I'm no NBA GM and I get the whole "draft for talent not for necessity" thing. But, come on! If he saw that Knight was the best talent on the board and didn't have any real need for yet another guard, he could have traded the rights to get a veteran big or trade down to draft a big that didn't merit the 8th pick. That's sound strategy right?
But then again, there must be something up Joe D's sleeve. The trade doesn't have to happen on draft night, after all. Maybe he's evaluating who among all his guards - Rodney Stuckey, Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Will Bynum, Terrico White, and Knight - to ship out. Right?
I'm personally hoping that Rip actually does get moved already. I love the guy and what he meant to the franchise during its championship year but what he did last year was just downright bad. It's as if he picked up on the tantrums that Allen Iverson brought to the team when he blew into town a couple of years ago.
Now we still don't know what White will be able to do for our team but given that he's probably the lowest on the depth chart in terms of guards, I think that he's another player that we can move. It will be even harder to evaluate what he means to the team given that the NBA already cancelled the Summer League as a result of the ongoing uncertainty over the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Given all that, if trades were to be made already, I foresee the Pistons roster looking like this for at least when the season starts - IF the season starts.
PG - Brandon Knight
SG - Rodney Stuckey
SF - Austin Daye
PF - Greg Monroe
C - The big whom they will get in a trade for Rip Hamilton.
Bench:
Ben Gordon
Jonas Jerebko
Charlie Villanueva
Will Bynum
Jason Maxiell
Kyle Singler
Another big with defensive prowess (Ben Wallace can be this if he decides not to retire just yet)
Jerebko comes off the bench because he brings a defensive intensity that Daye wouldn't be able to give. Also, it would be hard to pair Daye and Villanueva in a unit. BG comes off the bench to provide Jason Terry numbers - the reason why DP got him in the first place. It will be hard to put Bynum in, though, given that Gordon is already undersized at the 2. As a whole, the second unit would be pretty small, but they would have a nice combination of a fast game (Bynum and Jerebko) with hopefully good perimeter shooting (Gordon and Villanueva). Maxiell provides, uh, space in the middle, though if he really puts his head into it, he can be a monster on both ends of the floor.
How does the upcoming season look like? Not too good. But hopefully the team will be able to build more around the new core of Knight, Stuckey, Daye, Jerebko, and Monroe. I already tried this on the espn.com Trade Machine and while the prospect according to the site is that the Pistons are on the losing end of the trade, it gives us more flexibility after this coming season - a season that, again, might not happen.
The last champion team for the Pistons took some time to assemble, maybe this might take the same amount of time.
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