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https://pistonpowered.com/2022/08/21/detroit-pistons-draft-bust-starting-five/

Darko
Sekou
Austin Daye
Rodney White
Mateen Cleaves

* Killian is given a 'clock is ticking' mention


My only real objection is that Henry Ellenson probably belongs there over Daye.

Stanley Johnson needs to be there

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i don't know if i'd include rodney white. he was only with the pistons for one season and they traded him for a first round pick. same with mateen cleaves.

guys like henry ellenson and stanley johnson would be better to put on the bust team imo. they were both with the team for multiple seasons and we didn't get any value for them when they left.

whitehops wrote:i don't know if i'd include rodney white. he was only with the pistons for one season and they traded him for a first round pick. same with mateen cleaves.

guys like henry ellenson and stanley johnson would be better to put on the bust team imo. they were both with the team for multiple seasons and we didn't get any value for them when they left.

I don't know if someone's poor decision to trade for them means they're not a bust. White sucked. The fact that we wanted to trade the #9 pick after one season speaks volumes.

flow wrote:I don't know if someone's poor decision to trade for them means they're not a bust. White sucked. The fact that we wanted to trade the #9 pick after one season speaks volumes.

i'm not denying they weren't busts, but it didn't really impact the pistons negatively.

Brandon Knight was a PG averaging more TOs than Assists. Daye and Sekou were not even lotto picks. Stanley Johnson and Brandon Knight should be there over them. Killian Hayes should be there soon, 1-2 seasons max.

But knight was still an nba level player. That wasn’t true of cleaves. About the only switch should be Daye out and Ellenson in.

It’s sad that most of those guys were barely in the nba through their rookie contracts. And if they were it wasn’t as a major factor.

Or the weird fact that Darko is the best of this group

chrbal wrote:But knight was still an nba level player. That wasn’t true of cleaves. About the only switch should be Daye out and Ellenson in.

It’s sad that most of those guys were barely in the nba through their rookie contracts. And if they were it wasn’t as a major factor.

Or that Darko is the best of this group

Darko was also a NBA player, and a decent one, the problem is where he was picked and the HOFers that were selected after him. Knight was really frustrating, after we traded him he had an ok career untill his injury. But while he played for us he was worse than Killian Hayes, and Hayes is arguably the worst NBA player right now (rotation guy getting enough minutes to qualify)

Hayes was better defensively than Knight but if I recall, Knight could hit the three ball at a decent clip and score it well enough to keep the defense honest. Daye has some points where he was effective and looked like an NBA player. Ellenson never looked like an NBA player and a lot of fans where very underwhelmed by the pick.

Busting outside of the lottery is pretty common... I'm looking at our worst picks in the top 13 (like Stanley Johnson) before guys picked at 15 or later (like Daye).

Darko could have been a decent bench big if he wasn't hyped to the moon with huge expectations... if he had a better attitude and personality. He had the skillset and athleticism to be a decent long term NBA player.

Google Roy Hamilton (#10 pick in 1979, had a two year career before retiring to pursue a broadcasting career) and Leon Douglas (#4 pick in 1976, a career backup selected ahead of Hall of Famers Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson).


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bstein14 wrote:Darko could have been a decent bench big if he wasn't hyped to the moon with huge expectations... if he had a better attitude and personality. He had the skillset and athleticism to be a decent long term NBA player.

Darko could've been an all-star level player if he had the right attitude and personality.

take sekou off the list stanley johnson and henry ellenson was much worse lol.

Looks like the off season bottom of the barrel is really getting scraped.

tradez401 wrote:take sekou off the list stanley johnson and henry ellenson was much worse lol.

Completely agree. Sekou was seen as a gamble when he was drafted and Ellenson just shows a "safe" pick can still become a bust.

grpistons wrote:

tradez401 wrote:take sekou off the list stanley johnson and henry ellenson was much worse lol.

Completely agree. Sekou was seen as a gamble when he was drafted and Ellenson just shows a "safe" pick can still become a bust.

I don’t know if ellenson was considered a safe pick, he was pretty much a Garza-like experiment.

Both were skilled bigs that had to change their games/bodies to adapt to the current nba and ellenson obviously couldn’t. The pistons cutting Garza after one season probably means they aren’t too optimistic about him being able to either.

Manocad wrote:Looks like the off season bottom of the barrel is really getting scraped.

You’re not a little bit entertained that we’re discussing who are the worst pistons draft picks?

How many opportunities do you get where people are defending sekou and ellenson?

This is a great time to be alive

The pathetic part is that there are so many names to debate in just the last 20 years. Our drafting was just horrible for so long.

I see some Ellenson mentions and while he was a wasted pick, the bust factor is a lot lower at 18 so I wouldn't put him on the All Bust 1st team although Daye and Cleaves were mid 1st rounders too so I suppose I can see an argument for Ellenson.

I think most would agree that Darko and White are the two worst with Stanley a close 3rd. Man, the drafting really tanked after the Goin' to Work era. Even the "hits" like Drummond, Monroe and Kennard were meh. Their best draft picks were taken in the 2nd round and given away for nothing. Been a rough 15 years or so.
Actually, their drafting has sucked for the most part since the late 80s now that I think about it. The Pistons have done a lot of building through trades. Trader Jack and Trader Joe