NBA Draft: Help create the official Detroit Bad Boys Draft Board

I love the NBA Draft. I love learning about players, speculating about needs, and concocting bizarre trades for my own boredom/amusement. And one of the great things about a community like Detroit Bad Boys is that there are hundreds of fans much smarter than me who really watch NCAA basketball and have a good understanding of who and who isn't going to have a successful transition to the pro game.

But there is one significant downside to draft time and I'm probably as guilty as anybody in this regard. I read about so many players but then I get fixated on one or two guys and then if those players are drafted or my favorite team passes them over for someone I'm less familiar with I can't help but feel like the draft was a failure.

So how do we fix that? Well, in the pro leagues the mantra is to always stick to your board. In internet fandom that translates to looking at a collection of mock drafts and hoping for the best. But you don't have to look very far to see the problems with that route. Last year Brandon Knight was pegged to be drafted between No. 3 and No. 5 and the Pistons were supposed to get whichever big man fell to them. That didn't happen.

Instead there was a run on big guys and Knight fell to the Pistons at No. 8. Does that mean I was supposed to be happy? After all, the supposed third pick in the draft fell. On the other hand he was another not quite point guard to join Joe Dumars' growing collection. And because he was slotted to go so high I never really bothered to learn about him.

So instead lets create our own draft board. Would Brandon Knight have made the top 8 last year? I'm not sure. Just because Harrison Barnes is pegged as a top 6 pick does that mean he would make the top 9 on our board this year? Let's put that to a vote.

It's a simple process. Every day a new post will appear with a poll featuring a bunch of names in the NBA Draft. Every day the DBB community will vote on the best player available if they were in charge of the Detroit Pistons draft board. Whoever finishes first is the official selection and is removed from the voting list.

For instance, the first vote will be held today. If Anthony Davis doesn't win the vote I'd be shocked and probably reconsider this whole idea. But if (when) he wins, then he is the official No. 1 selection on the DBB draft board and tomorrow his name will not be available to vote on.

I have a question for everyone, however. We have nine days until the draft. That means if we do one vote a day we'll get to the Pistons draft position. Should we do two votes every day just so we get an idea of how DBB views other possible draft selections? For example, if Arnett Moultrie is drafted by Detroit he might be the 10th rated player in our draft board or he might be the 16th. The only way to find out would be to keep voting.

Let me know what you think in the comments. The first poll is below.

UPDATE: PistonPowered has an identical draft board project going, if you're interested. They were inspired by the same project at Sactown Royalty. It seems great minds think alike, however, I promise that were planning this since before the season ended. Join the fun!