Pistons 2017 NBA Draft Links: A little bit of everything

Basketball Insiders’ various selections for Detroit

Four Basketball Insiders writers have four different players getting chosen by Detroit with that number 12 pick in their latest mock. The four players are Frank Ntilikina, Terrance Ferguson, Justin Jackson and Steve Hinson’s main man Ike Anigbogu.

Writer Joel Brigham writes:

This also might be the first week that I’ve had Ike Anigbogu in the lottery. Things just really thin out after the top ten players, and his ceiling is as high as anybody’s. Detroit (or whichever team trades for Detroit’s #12 pick) would be lucky to have him.

Detroit actually met with Ike last week in pre-draft workouts. So for awareness sake, here’s a video of Ike blocking just about every shot in sight during his freshmen season — only four minutes long:

Can’t get enough of the mocks

Fox Sports’ Andrew Lynch came out with a NBA Mock Draft 2.0 on Wednesday. It has the Pistons taking the young Frank Ntilikina:

Ntilikina has a long way to go before he'll make an impact in the NBA. Luckily, the Pistons already have Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith to hold down the fort until the 18-year-old Frenchman is ready.

Justin Jackson (number 10) and Zach Collins (number 11) obviously weren’t available for Detroit to select in this mock, however Donovan Mitchell and Luke Kennard were.

Trading with the Nuggets?

As you probably know, Detroit is open to trading the No. 12 pick in the draft for a win-now piece (or maybe two). The Denver Stiffs, upon knowing this news, held out several Nuggets players in the wind that Detroit could have interest in:

Denver holds various veteran players on tradable contracts that may or may not be involved in future plans. Players like Wilson Chandler, Will Barton, Darrell Arthur, and even Jameer Nelson could be potential additions for a Pistons team that wants to make the playoffs next season.

Then they went ahead and proposed two trades:

Trade 1:

Nuggets receive: Jon Leuer, Boban Marjanovic, 12th overall

Pistons receive: Wilson Chandler, one of Emmanuel Mudiay or Jameer Nelson

...

Trade 2:

Nuggets receive: Jon Leuer, Jeremy Lin, 12th overall

Pistons receive: Wilson Chandler, Will Barton, Jameer Nelson

Nets receive: Reggie Jackson

And then I went ahead and closed the tab (but considered Trade 2 for a second).

Five potential first round sleepers

A couple of guys on this list are worth mentioning in terms of Detroit’s needs and curiosities (OK, maybe I’m projecting on the curiosity a bit). First player is Oklahoma State guard Jawun Evans, a 6-foot speedster that gets in the lane at will, although needs to improve finishing at the rim. However, he’s a sniper from deep. If I had to compare him to someone in the NBA I’d go with Isaiah Thomas (that’s best case). Also, every time I read Jawun’s name the 2002 comedy Juwanna Mann pops into my head. And it wasn’t even a good movie. Hope that doesn’t spell trouble for Jawun’s NBA career. All in all, it would be very surprising for Jawun to be drafted in the top 15 at this point, but let’s monitor the situation going forward.

Second player is combo guard Derrick White, who only played one season of DI basketball after transferring from the DII level. While Derrick is shooting up draft boards (seriously, check out the link to learn more about Derrick), he will be 23-years-old by the time next season begins. Not to dampen the mood on Derrick, but the only way Detroit would consider him is if they moved down in the draft, somewhere in the 20s.

If you didn’t check out the link about Derrick White that I told you to check out, then you would have missed this Derrick White fun stat:

Even more impressively, he was one of only three players in all of college basketball to average at least 18 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steals and 1 block. The only two players were Michael Weathers of Miami (Ohio) and presumptive 1st overall pick Markelle Fultz of Washington.

Forward O.G. Anunoby profile

Keith Langlois took a look at the former Indiana Hoosier and wondered how he would fit on Detroit’s roster:

PISTONS FIT: Would the presence of Stanley Johnson make Anunoby a redundant player for the Pistons? While the Pistons have used Johnson primarily at shooting guard and small forward, Anunoby projects more as a small forward and power forward. In fact, power forward might ultimately be the position where Anunoby holds the most NBA value, particularly down the stretch when many teams downsize and put non-conventional power forwards at the four. If the Pistons see that as Anunoby’s future, then maybe he makes sense. A defensive trio of Johnson, Anunoby and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could be dominant.

DBB NBA Finals meet up on June 9th at 9 pm

We got some folks interested in another DBB meet up — this time the meeting place will be at Library Sports Pub & Grill in West Bloomfield Township (6363 Haggerty). The Cavs-Warriors (Game 4) tips at 9 pm but feel free to drop on by around 8-8:15 pm. Let us know if you are interested with a message in the comments.

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Happy Finals watching!