Pistons Only Trust First Hand Draft Info

Posted Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Pistons only trust firsthand draft info

Jonny Flynn was the narrow winner of a three-way point guard workout battle that also involved Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday at Sacramento (supposedly). Earl Clark got the slight better of it in a head-to-head matchup with James Johnson in a workout for New Jersey (allegedly). B.J. Mullens pulled out of a workout because (a) he has a promise from someone in the top 16 picks or (b) he was leery of being shown up by Utah’s Luke Nevill.

Take it all with a grain of salt. Or ignore it altogether.

That’s pretty much what the Pistons do with the avalanche of draft rumors spawned by the rumor mill via the predraft workout tour that’s reaching its crescendo as June 25 approaches.

“One thing about those reports,” Pistons personnel director George David said Wednesday morning, “is a lot of times the person who filed the report wasn’t in the gym. Where that begs you to go is, where is it coming from? And what’s the motivation? And was that person sitting there watching it diligently the whole time, or did he walk out to get a cup of coffee and come back to catch one spectacular moment?”

So what do the Pistons trust most as they prepare to exercise four draft picks – 15, 35, 39 and 44?

“What we see and what we’ve seen,” David said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been influenced by another person’s evaluation of a player. We’re influenced simply by what we see and what we’ve seen. We’ve had some drafts where what we’ve seen has gone against the grain of what other people saw and that’s never really been a factor.”

It’s been a different, somewhat more hectic, preparation period for this draft for two reasons: one, the Pistons have had far more time than they’re accustomed to having due to their first-round playoff ouster; two, with four draft picks instead of one or two, they want to make more certain that they have complete workups on as many players as possible.

But it doesn’t necessarily mean four draft picks mean twice as much work as two draft picks would.

“We’ve always gone into every year making sure we knew every kid,” David said, “because you never know what can happen. Say the day before the draft you acquire a pick that’s way outside of the range – you want to know.”

That philosophy also meant David and the rest of Joe Dumars’ front-office staff didn’t have to shift gears when the Pistons’ standing plummeted during the second half of season, changing an expected draft position of somewhere in the low or mid-20s into the middle teens.

The Pistons are much more a “best player available” team than a “draft for need” team, and that philosophy seems especially prudent for at least two reasons.

The first is that in most years, unless you’re drafting high in the lottery, you can’t expect immediate impact anyway – and by the time you can reasonably expect impact, in the second or third season, the roster could be significantly different than on draft night.

The second is that this year the draft will come on the eve of a free agency and trade season that is expected to markedly change the makeup of the Pistons. And unless Dumars can sit in the war room on draft night and be virtually certain of what moves are in store for the rest of the summer, he’d be drafting for a need that could more readily be addressed by both the free-agent market and the trade alternative.

“I think we’ve (taken the best player available) every year,” David said. “Whether you have the No. 1 pick or the 30th pick, I think we’ve done that every year.”

David said the team has brought in more than 50 players to Auburn Hills for workouts – roughly one-third in consideration for the first-round pick – and still has more scheduled in the week preceding the draft. The Pistons have eschewed the group workouts for multiple teams that are increasing in frequency and popularity – this year, major workouts were held at Golden State, Minnesota and New Jersey – because they’ve had great success at getting the players they most desire to work out for them to come to Auburn Hills, where they can tailor the workouts and the interview sessions to their choosing.


Will Bynum will play for the Pistons’ NBA Summer League entry in Las Vegas at his choosing, David said.
It’ll be interesting to see if that changes if the Pistons were to choose a point guard at 15. The front office and coaching staff is pretty comfortable with what Bynum can do and his spot in next season’s rotation is secure. The main benefit of having him in Vegas would be to have a point guard capable of getting a team into its half-court offense so they can do a better job evaluating his teammates. But if they get a first-round point, Bynum might slip to the background so they can get a chance to fully evaluate the first-rounder. If it’s a second-round point guard, that’s another story.

David confirmed that all three second-rounders from last season – Walter Sharpe, Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington – will be on the roster. And if the Pistons exercise all four draft choices, that could give them an unusually large number of players who are Pistons property on the Summer League team. It’s possible, especially if they were to choose an international player in the second round, that not all of this year’s draftees would be available for Summer League play this year.


David said that a prospect’s willingness to play internationally will again be a consideration for the Pistons in exercising their second-round choices.
“We do that every year,” he said. “We consider that part of our due diligence with every draft.”


Michael Curry will again coach the Pistons Summer League contingent – with a catch. He’ll oversee things and run practices, but Darrell Walker will coach the first three games and Pat Sullivan the last two.