The Detroit Pistons were one of a few teams heading into the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery with a need for a point guard. With teams in varying parts of rebuilds across the lottery, the Pistons are at the beginning stage of their teardown.
A player like Ball, then, would have been a great asset to start off with. However, the big jumps from the Hornets and Bulls came at the expense of the Pistons, who dropped from No. 5 to No. 7.
Still, Detroit was one of the few teams that got a firsthand look at Ball and remain high on him heading toward the October draft. Pistons’ senior advisor Ed Stefanski spoke this week on a local radio show about Ball.
“I would just say, that young man has a lot of talent. There’s no question about it. And we were able to see him early, we had a scout for a while overseas in Australia to watch. So we were fortunate there, where some teams were going to go over in the spring to see him play and obviously that’s not going to happen now.”
Stefanski has spoken about Ball on the same radio show in the past. He noted then that the team had a chance to scout Ball and that the team wouldn’t be turned away from LaMelo because of LaVar.
The problem for the Pistons is that they will be forced to trade up if they want a chance at Ball. The team isn’t due any first round draft picks in the coming year but doesn’t owe any either. Despite both Markieff Morris and Reggie Jackson being on title-contending teams in Los Angeles after starting the year in Detroit, the Pistons could not manufacture a trade for either.
With a lack of young assets to trade, though, it would require a healthy amount of draft picks to move up into the range to get Ball, a risk that may not be worth taking for a team only starting a rebuild.
[lawrence-related id=25667,25665,25661]