Good to have ya back, KS. Best of luck with Do North! Kick asses, take names, write good shit.

“This draft will not be kind to some GMs” – Indeed.

Afflalo was the first option on offense when he was in college. Danny Green was his team’s fourth option.

That being said, he’s probably a solid 2nd round pick.

If any of these 12 players drop, I think the Pistons have to take him:

Blake Griffin, Ricky Rubio, Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Tyreke Evans, Johnny Flynn, Brandon Jennings, Demar Derozan, Jrue Holiday, Stephen Curry, DaJuan Blair, Jordan Hill

These seem to be the consensus Top 12. Gerald Henderson is also a consensus Top 13, but I haven’t read a single thing that clues me in to why.

Dumars indicated that the 35th pick would probably be on the roster and the other two second rounders would probably go to Europe. My guess is that they’ll draft players that are athletic but very raw (a la Deron Washington) with those two picks.

new nbadraft.net mock has the pistons selecting austin daye. in the 2nd round. that’s the only way i want to see daye in a pistons uni next season.

>i>As it stands, the Pistons could use an upgrade at literally every position. Without Billups and Ben Wallace, the Pistons no longer have real stars, and therefore don’t have "positional needs". The best bet is to increase the talent pool, by any means necessary.

I agree, to a point. There is a “short supply of tall people” in the NBA, and we are in a prime position to get ahold of some quality big men. We need to do that, by any means necessary — even if it means trading Tay or Rip.

I’m still not on board with Gordon — BUT, if there is any truth to the rumors about him, then the only way it makes sense to me is if:

1) We get quality bigs first.
2) We pay him less than we’re currently paying Rip.

Latest draft news from ESPN:

There’s been a lot of speculation the past few weeks that the Pistons may trade their pick at 15. Not true, according to Detroit sources. “We’re in a position to add two to three players through free agency and to add a couple of players through the draft,” the source said. “No need for us to move our pick for an extra $1.4 million of cap space.”

As for all the talk that the Pistons promised everyone from B.J. Mullens to Earl Clark at No. 15. “It’s totally B.S.,” the source said. “Why would we promise someone in this draft? So many scenarios are still playing themselves out. Anything could happen. We’re just going to be content to let whoever falls to us fall.”

I have to say Iv’e never seen a draft where the mock drafts swing so wildly one day a guy we’ll be number 4 the next he’ll be 18 .I don’t know what the hell to expect thursday I’m just gonna hope someone overvalues somebody and pushes Blair ,Clark or one of the other 12 names QD. mentioned down to us, on a side note I have to admit this is the most excited i’ve ever been about the second round should make for a helluv a draft night.

I completely agree that Lawson+Carroll+Green would be an amazing set of draft picks. I really like Carroll, even more so if Curry can not be AFI and lets us play more up-tempo, and a Lawson/Stuckey backcourt would be a terror in a fast paced offense.

If we don’t draft Lawson (I’d love it if we did, but my gut says we won’t, even if he’s available), my guess is we draft Toney Douglas with our highest 2nd round pick. He’s a great defensive PG (ACC defensive player of the year), but his offensive game is kinda the opposite of Bynum’s- he’s not great off the dribble, but is a very good 3 point and mid-range shooter. He’d be a nice fit in a backcourt next to Stuckey (with them cross-matching on defense) and he’d be millions of dollars cheaper than Ben Gordon.

Hopefully regardless of who we pick with our first rounder, we grab Carroll in the 2nd round anyway (he should be available for us to take with our second 2nd round pick), though I could see us going with a more “pure” PF like a Taj Gibson or Jeff Pendergraph.

The only hiccup I could see with us potentially drafting Danny Green is if he said in his sit-down with Joe D that he wouldn’t want to play overseas. That supposedly crossed a few players off the Pistons list last year, so there’s a chance it could this year as well.

Interesting stuff all around in the latest Word on the Street from Draft Express:
http://www.draftexpress.com/blog/Jonathan-Givony/#Word-on-the-Street-June-22nd-3276

On us:

-B.J. Mullens worked out for the Philadelphia 76ers (#17) on Sunday, and is scheduled to work out for Chicago (#16) on Tuesday. While many NBA teams we spoke with have picked up on the rumor that he may have a promise from Detroit at 15, things don’t really seem to add up here. If anything, the Pistons seem to be most interested in Earl Clark, and have reportedly told him as much, as have the Phoenix Suns, drafting 14th. On the other hand, Detroit continues to be very active in trade-talk, though, and could very well decide to move the pick, which would make all of this moot. Would Mullens really turn down his Green Room invite if he definitely knew he was going 15th? Clark on the other hand just passed up a workout with Chicago this week in order to be with his newborn baby, as he seems to be feeling very good about where’s currently at in this draft.

So if Clark’s gone, is it really possible that Joe would take Mullens or Daye over Blair or Lawson (or even Hansbrough)? God I hope not. Also, it looks like Jennings is a potential free fall (he worked out with Phoenix, who picks right before us) – do we take him if he falls to us? My vote is maybe, but only if Clark, Lawson, and Blair are off the board – but I’m curious everyone else’s opinion.

Regardless, the Draft Express info is way better than the garbage that ESPN puts up and actually charges for…