(BTW, I totally ganked the "mock roundup idea" from Bullets Forever. Just saying.)
Who are the Pistons going to draft? I have no f'ing idea. Having participated in a few mock drafts, I certainly have a few ideas, but I won't be surprised by a half dozen different guys. In any case, let's round up some mock drafts and marvel at the lack of consensus people have about Detroit's plans (No. 15 pick / No. 27 pick):
ESPN: Rodney Stuckey / Morris Almond.
Sports Illustrated: Stuckey / Dominic McGuire
Draft Express: Stuckey / Derrick Byars
Comcast SportsNet: Josh McRoberts / Aaron Affalo.
NBADraft.net: Stuckey / McRoberts.
FOX: Stuckey / Tiago Splitter.
About.com: Stuckey / Nick Fazekas.
Pro Basketball News: Spencer Hawes / Rudy Fernandez.
Inside Hoops: Julian Wright / Fernandez.
Real GM: Nick Young / Ramon Sessions.
Fanhouse: Hawes / Marco Belinelli (I made these picks.)
SB Nation: Nick Young / Daequan Cook (I made these, too, and immediately regretted the Cook pick, at least following a Nick Young selection earlier in the draft.)
Hoops Addict: Stuckey / Glen Davis
The Great Blogger Mock Draft of 07: Stuckey / Sean Williams. (I made these picks.)
SLAM: Al Thornton (no 27th pick -- they stopped at 20)
Free Darko: Jason Smith / Taureen Green (or Byars or Stuckey)
SportProjections.com: Thaddeus Young / Petteri Koponen (Yep, I did this, too)
Stuckey looks like the favorite, but that might just be because there's an "echo chamber effect" going on -- I'm guessing a lot of the smaller sites/mocks were influenced greatly by what the big boys (ESPN, NBADraft.net and Draft Express) say -- I know I was. If everyone made a mistake and someone projected to go high ends up pulling a Brady Quinn and falls, you never know how it could shake up the rest of the first round.
That said, if it is Stuckey, it's nice to hear how much he wants to be here. From Andy Katz on ESPN (link swiped from Full-Court Press):
While Stuckey would be thrilled to go just about anywhere out of EWU, his dream destination is Detroit. The Pistons were one of the first teams to scout Stuckey. Former personnel director Scott Perry, now with Seattle, watched Stuckey as a freshman when Eastern Washington played at Cal State-Fullerton.
"It's my style of play, and they've compared me to Chauncey Billups-type guard," Stuckey said. "I'm a big guard [6-foot-5], and they need a backup point guard. I can learn from the best people -- Rip Hamilton, Chauncey [assuming he stays with the Pistons], Flip Saunders and Joe Dumars. It's a great organization. It's perfect for me."
The Pistons do look at Stuckey as similar to Dumars and Lindsay Hunter as being a player from a small school that plays with an edge. Dumars and Hunter played at McNeese State and Jackson State, respectively.
"You can find someone anywhere, and I'm in this position because they found me," Stuckey said.
Random DBB programming note: I'm guessing most of you will be watching the draft on TV. Myself, I'll be listening to a radio while swatting mosquitoes in the sticks of Grayling, MI, on a fishing trip that was planned literally a year ago.
(For some reason, when I tell people about the trip I feel like I need to add that it was planned a year ago, because I literally feel a twinge of guilt leaving DBB on the eve of such an Important Night ... which really is a sign that I need a vacation from blogging more than ever.)
That said, I'm not leaving you guys high and dry: I've enlisted the help of a celebrity guest blogger, PostmanE, one-half of the always awesome We Are the Postmen and a FanHouse colleague. Assuming he's not boozing with Mark Cuban, he should at least have one post up for all of you to congregate and debate the merits of each pick.
(That said, if all hell breaks loose and Joe Dumars ends up trading the entire roster for Greg Oden and a rack of the old "new" microfiber balls, I will get to a computer to weigh in, even if it takes breaking into Grayling's public library in the middle of the night. But barring that, you won't be hearing from me until Sunday evening.)