Detroit Pistons Slide to 7th In 2020 NBA Draft

The 2020 NBA Draft Lottery happened Thursday night, and the Detroit Pistons did not do as well as we were all hoping.

The Pistons were really bad in the Covid shortened 2020 season, and every Pistons fan hoped that would mean good things in the draft. The Pistons had just over a 10% chance of landing the first overall pick, which is pretty good. The NBA Lottery is a weighted drawing, but definitely does not guarantee the worst team the first pick.

Watching the lottery last night, I was very relieved that Detroit did not end up in the 10th spot. My excitement even grew a little bit when the chances of a top 5 or better pick looked possible. Then the 7th pick came around, and The Pistons were called.

So what does the 7th pick mean? Fortunately for the Pistons, it doesn't mean much this year. There are no franchise changing players in this years draft, so they can do some homework and find the best fit for the team. The new GM for the Pistons, Troy Weaver, talked about the pick on the Pistons social media sites.

We're going to charge forward, and get after it with the seventh pick

I don't even know what that means, but Weaver has to be an improvement at the GM position considering where Detroit has been in recent years.

So who could the Pistons pick at number 7? Most Pistons experts had anticipated the team being high enough to draft Anthony Edwards, but he will be gone by the time the seventh pick rolls around. Now most mock draft boards have the Pistons picking up James Wiseman. Wiseman is a center from Memphis who has a huge upside. The problem is that the NBA is a guard focused league so picking a center might not do Detroit any good.

To say that Michigan sports has been in a bit of a funk lately is a bit of an understatement. One of my favorite people to follow on Twitter is Andy Isaac. He is a sports writer from Detroit, and I think he wrapped up the current landscape of Detroit sports pretty well with one tweet.