NBA Draft 2019: Who should the Detroit Pistons draft at No. 15?

After reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2016, the Detroit Pistons have a pair of draft picks to add to their playoff-contending roster. Who could they potentially target with the 15th pick of the 2019 NBA Draft?

Blake Griffin needs some help.

Seriously, he needs as much help as he can possibly get on a borderline playoff team that relies so heavily on his do-it-all contributions on the offensive end. The team’s hub and center of scoring and playmaking, the 6-10 All-Star big man averaged 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists on a career-high usage rate (30.2 USG%) in his second season with the tumultuous Pistons, doing everything (including playing through injury) for a team that squeaked into the eighth seed with a 41-41 record.

Although reaching the postseason for the first time since 2016 should be something to be excited about, the Pistons should be far from comfortable, as the team struggled mightily without their star on the court, as the team lacks a suitable supporting cast that’s capable of carrying its weight whenever Griffin is on the bench or out with an injury (which is fairly often given his extensive injury history).

Second-year guard Luke Kennard’s emergence in the second half of the season certainly helped, as he went on to average 11.4 points per game before upping that average to 15 points per game in the team’s first-round sweep, but the Pistons still badly need shot makers on the wing that actually pose as rotation-level NBA players. Rookies Bruce Brown, Khyri Thomas and Svi Mykhailiuk were given opportunities to prove themselves capable of contributing but ultimately struggled to contribute in a meaningful way. Brown earned himself a starting role due to his defense, but he’s a significant negative on offense, so his spot in the starting lineup is far from secure.

With a cap-strapped roster, the Pistons will have to look to use their exceptions and two draft picks — numbers 15 and 45 — to add talent on the margins, and despite being a playoff team, they’re needing more out of their picks than most other franchises due to the aforementioned roster concerns. Finishing the year with the league’s 12th-best defense (108.6 DRTG) was an impressive feat in Dwayne Casey’s first year in Detroit, especially given the personnel he had to work with, but the Pistons’ anemic offensive rating of 108.3 ranked in the bottom-third (21st) in the league, leaving much to be desired.

With their first round pick, the Pistons must find a talented wing capable of providing shot-making, either off the catch or off the dribble, to an offense that’s starving for whatever production it can find. Not all rookies are capable of actually contributing right away, so it’s doubtful that they’ll find someone with NBA-ready talent, but grabbing a longterm building block is important nonetheless.

Detroit doesn’t have the best history when it comes to the NBA Draft, especially not in the first round. Some notable misses (i.e., players that either failed to reach lofty expectations or were given up on by the organization) include Greg Monroe in 2010 (No. 7), Brandon Knight in 2011 (No. 8), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2013 (No. 8), Stanley Johnson in 2015 (No. 8), and Henry Ellenson in 2016 (No. 18). The Pistons will hope to buck the trend of mediocre drafting with their first-rounder in this year’s draft, and for their sake, the need to. Ed Stafanski had a relatively strong track record drafting as an executive in Philadelphia, so it will be interesting to see what he does in his second draft with the Pistons, which is his first with a first-round pick at his disposal.

So, with that said, who could the Detroit Pistons target with the 15th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft?