I have to give Joe an A. I mean it was dumb luck that Drummond fell (thank God for the stupidity of the Bobcats and Cavs) but Joe STILL had to take him. The two 2nd rounders, AWESOME! Reminds me of when we picked Jonas and Summers, one of these guys will be a solid Piston in our rotation.
The PR dept. of the Pistons said time and again that wild stuff happens on draft night. We only needed 1 team to reach behind us and Drummond would fall to us. It was nerve wracking to go through the 7-8 picks but they went where Chad Ford et al predicted leaving the biggest project in the draft in our lap. People wanted to trade up. People wanted to trade down. In the end, standing pat did us well. Joe will never get credit from the peanut gallery for that but you could look at how the draft was shaking out in the day or two leading up to the big moment. There was a good chance we'd get one of the top picks and especially Drummond. Joe decided to roll the dice on #9. Anyway, we got the pick. Now the work begins. Getting Drummond don't mean squat if you don't develop him. We have to give him EVERY opportunity to succeed for this pick to turn out. I grade the draft an A. When you talk risk, its against guys like Leonard or Henson or Rivers. I'd take the Drummond gamble every time at that point in the draft
Wonderful! This was what I was hoping for when I went to bed last night. Sure. this guy might be a bust but I hade NO problem at all risking a Zeller, Henson or w/e was left to take a shot at this guy. From what I've read he's so raw he'll suck plenty the first season and probably won't be a real contributor the second either but I'll take that. Regarding the other two picks: I don't have a clue who those guys are but according to their NBA.com profiles the PF Khris Middleton have lenght, rebounding. midrange and passing as strenghts and the SG Ken English is great shooter, intelligent and fierce defender. Sounds just perfect to me. I give the draft an A for letting Drummond fall to us and I give Dumars a C for not making a fool of himself and picking another player with Drummond left on the board plus the selection of Khris and Ken.
Ooops, Khris is a SF, not PF. Just what we needed. Khris Middleton | DRAFT 2012 Prospects | NBA.com Kim English | DRAFT 2012 Prospects | NBA.com
Would the Pistons have drafted Drummond with the 3rd pick? We just saved ourselves the embarrassment of tanking and got the same result.
---2012 - I think we got a player we would have drafted #2 overall at #9. He legitimately has the potential to become the best true center in the NBA next to Dwight Howard. That's really all there is to it. We'll have to wait and see how it works out. The second round guys sound good. We'll have to wait and see how that works out too. ---2011 - Brandon Knight was the 8th pick. He was second among all rookies in PPG, behind only #1 overall pick Kyrie Irving. Derrick Williams averaged like 8 points a game. Enes Kanter averaged like 4. Tristian Thompson like 8. Jan Vesely like 4. Bismack Biyombo like 5. And Jonas Valanciunas is still in Europe, of course. To this point, it looks like Brandon Knight should have been the #2 overall pick in that draft. ---2010 - J. Wall-16.3. E. Turner-9.4. D. Favors-8.8. W. Johnson-6.0. D. Cousins-18.1. E. Udoh-5.6. G. Monroe-15.1. No one picked behind Monroe has averaged that many points. And would you trade Monroe for Cousins, with all of his issues? (I would, but I know it's stupid, and that most wouldn't..lol). So, basically, again, we got the guy that should've been the #2 pick behind the #1 overall pick.
---2009 - A. Daye. Ugh. 4.7ppg. DeJuan Summers over DuJuan Blair too. Traded Budinger for nothing too. At least we did get Jerebko in the second. There were a lot of good players that came out of this draft. A lot of better players than Daye that we passed on, most notably Ty Lawson. I wouldn't consider this a good draft, unless Daye somehow starts to get it going - quick. ---2008 - W. Sharpe. UUgh. DeAndre Jordan on the board. Ugh. Bad draft. ---2007 - R. Stuckey. Solid pick. The only guy taken behind him that I'd trade him for is, of course, Aaron Afflalo (...and Marc Gasol, but that was way later).
Haven't done much reading on who we could have got, but would have to say A as well. Looks like ANOTHER pick fell to us. Projected top 5 and slipped out due to work ethic queries - sounds like our 2010 pick and look how he has turned out. 3 core pieces with something to prove after slipping to us in the 7-9 range. Stuckey and JJ. Cap space and 2013 free agency class. Understand there is a long way to go, but I have to say I'm a little excited!
We all are excited about this week. WHAT A WEEK! (And still doesn't end) My grades is: A- The Drummond pick was a SUPER A But I wanted Doron Lamb in the second round. I expect Middleton and English to be useful.
I give Joe and the scouts a solid "A" for this draft. These are all pieces that have the potential to make an impact for the Pistons this year after reading background on them. The summer league will be interesting to watch and will give us a general idea of the strengths and weaknesses of these guys.
Pretty hard to pass out grades to these kids without knowing what's up. I just hope that at least 2 out of the 3 guys Joe picked make the team and contribute. I'm a little freaked out that we picked another guy from UConn but other than that...
The only reason that I would give Joe and crew an outstanding grade here is because they chose to stand pat with the pick. Trading up wouldn't have done much for us in hindsight. Trading down would have been a bid mistake. Drummond may not pan out, but the thing with young bigs is that it is a probability exercise. You need to gamble a little bit and if you win, the payoff is that you will have a player that exists in an incredibly scarce supply. I have no idea about the other picks. I have the feeling that we would be just as optimistic (by nature) with any two names. They should get an above average chance under LFrank and our mediocre team. If they can't break through and make an impact, then they probably don't have it.
If Mr. Drummond would have not been available, Trading down would have totally been the way to go. Most of the cats that we were looking at @ #9 would have still been there. ...could have possibly had an extra guy.
Andre Drummond | NBADraft.net 2012 NBA Draft Grades | NBADraft.net The Polarizing Andre Drummond | NBADraft.net NBA Draft: Underrated/Overrated | NBADraft.net
Big if. It sounds like Joe was prepared for the possibility of Drummond falling, which is why he arranged a late workout through his agent. There was some pretty good analysis going on in the Pistons' braintrust pre-draft.
Last night, the Pistons used the 2nd rounder from Houston in the Budinger trade. So, they got the English kid from Missouri in exchange for Budinger.
Guy from cbssports.com gave the Pistons a D+: Matt Moore, cbssports.com: Grade: D+. Andre Drummond (9): He's so talented, so physically gifted, but Joe Dumars needed more of a sure thing. Drummond is a nice kid -- too nice. He doesn't play with much intensity, hasn't developed any low-post moves and has a mediocre basketball IQ. I hate to kill this pick because, again, Drummond is a high-character kid. But this was a major risk, even at number nine. Khris Middleton (39): Solid pick for Dumars; Middleton is a skilled wing who can shoot it from the perimeter. Kim English (44): Has size and can shoot the ball from the perimeter. Quality selection in the middle of the second round.
