Khyri Thomas & Bruce Brown

[vic]

They picked two guys with length, athleticism, and defense first. That's all you can ask for in the 2nd round.

That's a BIG improvement on anything SVG/Bower were doing. I like the way Stefanski thinks already. I trust him more already. I feel like he's at least watching the same game I'm watching.

[vic]

Ok I checked their stats. So I had to come back and reiterate. I really like where the Pistons are going now.

- Both players project well athletically and defensively.
- Thomas can shoot, but his handle is suspect.
- Brown can pass, but his shooting is suspect.
- Both are older than you'd prefer.

Stefanski did the best you can do when you only have pick 42. He turned that into 2 solid potential role players in a very deep draft.

Only thing left to do is hope that player development and full time basketball can get rid of their skill weaknesses. Then you give them confidence hope their athleticism, length, and IQ will turn them into draft steals. That's all you can do in round 2.

We might actually have a front office with a vision.

[Laimbeer]

We need to trade for Schroeder. I do not think he is far better than Reggie but at least he is healthy and his value is very low now. Reggie and Stanley should be enough, shorter contract and a young guy.

I'm torn on this just because of the negative stuff about his attitude. Has some kind of criminal charges pending I think.

[Laimbeer]

delete

[hoophabit]

Second round picks by the math alone are experiments in serendipity. These two seem reasonable prospects. The second round makes fools of experts regularly. Some athleticism, length, and shooting? Might get lucky?

[Kilo]

Crazy thing to me is in any other league a second round pick is still a top prospect. I think sooner than later ie next few years a third round will be added once the G-League is a legit minor league where teams sign all of their G-league rosters to minor league deals and the like. Once teams have true minor league teams where they can develop players the second round prospects will hold real value as prospects.

Gotta stop trading them away for this reason as well.

[The Moose]

Watch on YouTube

His on ball defense reminds of Avery Bradley a little bit

[whitehops]

i don't know many (more like any) of the other second round prospects that were available but just looking into these two i'm glad with the way the draft panned out.

firstly, we might not have any second round picks for some years but with our CURRENT cap crunch the cheapest way to fill out the roster was with second round picks. depending on the structure in terms of years/options, these guys should have a cap hit between $800-$850k which goes up to ~$1.4 in year two and then $1.8-$2 million in year 3 (based on last year's rookies taken in the same range). even signing a third string, long-time D League player like eric moreland cost us almost $2 million last year.

khyri thomas definitely has a more direct role and a better path to minutes early on compared to bruce brown. he has a few fairly nba-ready skills to provide, which is spot up shooting from 3 (41% on 4.6 attempts), defense (two-time big east DPOY) and transition play. he isn't very good at creating offense but i think the plan would be that blake or reggie would. based on his time in toronto, casey liked to have a backup guard pressure the ball full court (first cory joseph, now fred vanvleet) and thomas is the best bet to fit into that role. i wouldn't be surprised if thomas passed galloway on the depth chart sooner than later.

bruce brown was a promising freshman and was projected at the beginning of the season to emerge as a lottery/top-20 pick (see this SI article from november) but it's been suspected that he was playing hurt during the year and then needed foot surgery which ended his season. brown is a versatile guard and acted as a point guard for miami a lot of the time. he's solid defensively and is 6'5 with a 6'9 wingspan. the cool part? despite being only 195 pounds and having the second-lowest body fat% in the draft class, he put up the second most reps on bench at 17. brown has a football background which helps his playing strength and motor/physicality. he's going to be more of an upside pick/project kind of guy as he hones his skills to an nba level and gets back from the foot surgery.

so we:
- needed more wing players, check
- added cheap contracts, check
- added an "nba-ready" guy, check
- added an "upside" guy, check

for what we had going in i am definitely pleased at the results.

[The Penguin]

Crazy thing to me is in any other league a second round pick is still a top prospect. I think sooner than later ie next few years a third round will be added once the G-League is a legit minor league where teams sign all of their G-league rosters to minor league deals and the like. Once teams have true minor league teams where they can develop players the second round prospects will hold real value as prospects.

Gotta stop trading them away for this reason as well.

My biggest concern with dealing future 2nds...

One of these years one and dones are going away. It's going to be a boon year for the draft, basically getting nearly double the lottery picks as a usual year. Since I'm not optimistic enough to believe we'll be picking in the 20s (50s of 2nd round) anytime soon, dealing these future 2nds could mean we are losing a guy who would be a fringe lottery guy in a normal year.

[joeposh]

I'm not that worried about our second rounder situation, especially now that we're back in the 1st round mix. It's still very easy to buy your way back into the 2nd round (sometimes literally, with all cash considerations) -- and the potential end of the one and done`rule just means that there will be even more unsigned, training camp talent in the years to come.

[ComboGuardCity]

Crazy thing to me is in any other league a second round pick is still a top prospect. I think sooner than later ie next few years a third round will be added once the G-League is a legit minor league where teams sign all of their G-league rosters to minor league deals and the like. Once teams have true minor league teams where they can develop players the second round prospects will hold real value as prospects.

Gotta stop trading them away for this reason as well.

15 players vs 53 man roster is the big difference there. I do agree we’re gearing up for a legit G-League once the one and done rule is done. Might even see kids in high school picked like baseball.

[flow]

This is a pre-draft video titled, '4 Hidden Gems in the Draft.' It's well done, and Bruce Brown is one of the 4. His portion begins at about the 5:05 mark of the video. Worth the watch.

Incidentally, the other 3 players highlighted are Kevin Huerter, Jalen Brunson and Jevon Carter.

Watch on YouTube

.

[Snakebites]

We need to trade for Schroeder. I do not think he is far better than Reggie but at least he is healthy and his value is very low now. Reggie and Stanley should be enough, shorter contract and a young guy.

I'm torn on this just because of the negative stuff about his attitude. Has some kind of criminal charges pending I think.

I say no. Other than staying on the floor I see no reason to believe he's any better than Reggie, plus all of the attitude and legal baggage. The Hawks seem to want no part of him.

[ComboGuardCity]

Plus he can’t shoot

[The Penguin]

I'm not that worried about our second rounder situation, especially now that we're back in the 1st round mix. It's still very easy to buy your way back into the 2nd round (sometimes literally, with all cash considerations) -- and the potential end of the one and done`rule just means that there will be even more unsigned, training camp talent in the years to come.

The reports were Golden State spent the entire 2nd round trying to buy a pick and no one would bite. Granted that could just be the league not wanting to help the Warriors, but I think after the Bulls gave away Jordan Bell it's not exactly a good PR move to blatantly sell picks.

[Kilo]

Do we have a report on the numbers these two will wear. 0/2 and 11 are out of course.

[coordinator0]

We need to trade for Schroeder. I do not think he is far better than Reggie but at least he is healthy and his value is very low now. Reggie and Stanley should be enough, shorter contract and a young guy.

Schroeder is worse than Jackson. Him being able to stay on the floor isn't actually a positive. I'd rather he not be out there for my team.

[coordinator0]

Also, I'm really happy with the the Pistons getting Thomas and Brown. Didn't stay on Twitter during the draft last night and went to bed after the Brown pick feeling fairly happy. Found out about the Thomas trade this morning and felt great. After seeing him drop to the late 20's I was hoping for Detroit to come up and make a move for him then but to only have to give up two future seconds for one current (Thomas) that's a steal. Dude is legit. He's an experienced prospect but isn't the "safe" Darrun Hilliard or Kim English type of deal. He profiles as a tremendous backup to Kennard, which is fine for a second round pick. They can play together some too.

Brown is mostly upside. More of a swing-for-the-fences type of pick, but that's something you want in the second round anyways. Either grab a falling talent (like Khryi) or go for it all. No "safe" type of selections with little upside that we've seen Detroit make in the recent past. Bruce could be pretty exciting as a combo guard. He has some developing left to do but the dude is aggressive going to the basket. Something the Pistons could also use more of.

[Kilo]

A little perspective on things -

Thomas, a three-year starter at Creighton after a prep school year, is 22 and Brown, a two-year starter at Miami after a similar stint at prep school, will turn 22 by the time training camp starts. Thomas was born three weeks before Stanley Johnson; Brown was born two months after Luke Kennard. Henry Ellenson will be the Pistons youngest player for a third consecutive season.

[Moses ShamMoses]

after picking up two new combo guards, time to trade Galloway for a SF/PF type.