Despite watching the Detroit Pistons slip from No. 7 to No. 8 following Tuesday's NBA Draft lottery, Joe Dumars put on an optimistic face when talking to the media. From Vince Ellis of the Freep:
"As soon as the season’s over with and you kind of see where your draft slot is for the draft lottery and you know you are going to be in the seven range you really start looking at all the players that you think are going to be in that range," Pistons president of basketball operation Joe Dumars said from New Jersey where the lottery was held. "So we still feel like we’re going to get a good player."
Dumars refused to commit to drafting a big man, but reading between the lines, he certainly seems to be leaning in that direction:
"Is it a slam dunk that we’re going to draft a big? No," Dumars said when asked if he prefers a big man. "Would we like to add another young big? Absolutely, but we’ll see how it plays out."
From Pistons.com:
"Obviously, we’re disappointed we dropped back one spot. That’s not what we were hoping for. But we’ve done our homework and we know we’ll get a good player, even dropping back one spot."
Dumars has already spent some of the offseason scouting in Europe, and soon after the NBA's pre-draft camp this coming weekend in Chicago, he indicated that he'd be making a return trip across the pond. Again, from Pistons.com:
"We’ll get a chance to put our eyes on those guys and see them in person again in a different setting. We’ll go through the same process in Europe that we do at the predraft camp here."
From Chris Iott at MLive:
"We watch a ton of film," Dumars said. "But there’s nothing like putting your eyes on a guy and seeing him up close and personal. When you don’t see as much of a guy, like the international guys, yeah, it makes your job a little bit tougher, but that just means you have to dig deeper and do your homework a lot more."
Also be sure to read: Dan Feldman of PistonPowered, reporting on-location in Secaucus, NJ, has a good column outlining Detroit's fall and analyzing their options.