featured-image

First-rounders and likely free agents make up the 40 Pistons worked out

AUBURN HILLS – The Pistons wound up bringing 40 players to Auburn Hills for draft workouts and it’s fairly easy to separate them into two groups: likely first-round picks and likely undrafted free agents.

There might be a player or two among the 40 to their practice facility across eight sessions spanning four weeks who winds up sneaking into the second round. But the Pistons enter tonight’s draft without a second-round pick – shipped to Utah as part of the three-team deal that brought Reggie Jackson to town – and that influenced either the invitations the Pistons sent out or the acceptance of prospects who saw no upside in working out for a team with only the No. 12 pick.

There was another factor at work this year that also shaped the list of Pistons workout invitations: the advent of the two-way contract. As part of the newly reached collective bargaining agreement, each team can sign two players to “two-way” contracts, a 16th and 17th player that can spend up to 45 days with the NBA parent team and the rest with the newly christened G League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Drive in the Pistons’ case.

Of the 40 players to visit Auburn Hills – Marcus Keene of Central Michigan participated in two workouts; Cal’s Ivan Rabb visited but didn’t work out due to injury – 12 are considered first-round prospects. Syracuse’s Tyler Lydon is probably the player with the greatest chance to slip into the second round, though Rabb is another who might be susceptible to falling on draft night.

Seven players who worked out for the Pistons will be among the 20 in the Barclays Center green room for the draft: Bam Adebayo, Jarrett Allen, John Collins, Justin Jackson, Luke Kennard, Donovan Mitchell and Justin Patton. An eighth player, Harry Giles, reportedly declined an invitation to the green room. Lydon, Rabb, UCLA’s Ike Anigbogu and North Carolina’s Tony Bradley are the four players with first-round possibilities who worked out for the Pistons but weren’t invited to the green room.

A year ago, when the Pistons had both first- and second-round picks, they brought in 49 players for draft visits.

Here’s the list of the 40 players who visited the Pistons over the past month, with first-round prospects marked with an asterisk:

MAY 23 *Ike Anigbogu – UCLA, 6-10 Michael Ojo – Florida State, 7-1 Reggie Upshaw Jr. – Middle Tennessee State, 6-7 Jeremy Senglin – Weber State, 6-2 Milton Doyle – Loyola Chicago, 6-4 Matt Williams – Central Florida, 6-5

JUNE 6

*Bam Adebayo – Kentucky, 6-10 *Ivan Rabb – California, 6-11 *Justin Jackson – North Carolina, 6-8 Andrew White – Syracuse, 6-7 James Blackmon Jr. – Indiana, 6-4 Isaiah Briscoe – Kentucky, 6-3

JUNE 10

*Luke Kennard – Duke, 6-6 *Harry Giles – Duke, 6-10 *John Collins – Wake Forest, 6-10 Isaac Humphries – Kentucky, 7-0

June 13

Derrick Walton – Michigan, 6-1 Melo Trimble – Maryland, 6-2 Davon Reed – Miami, 6-6 Luke Fischer – Marquette, 6-11 Peter Jok – Iowa, 6-6 *Tony Bradley – North Carolina, 6-11

June 14

*Tyler Lydon - Syracuse, 6-9 Marcus Keene – Central Michigan, 5-9 Bryce Alford – UCLA, 6-3 Derek Willis – Kentucky, 6-9 Zak Irvin – Michigan, 6-6 TJ Cline – Richmond, 6-9

June 15

*Justin Patton – Creighton, 6-11 Landen Lucas – Kansas, 6-10 John Gillon – Syracuse, 6-0 Jonathan Williams – Toledo, 6-3 *Jarrett Allen – Texas, 6-11

June 16

Moses Kingsley – Arkansas, 6-10 Steve Taylor Jr. – Toledo, 6-7 Tyler Roberson – Syracuse, 6-8 Rashawn Thomas – Texas A&M C-C, 6-8

June 18

Jamel Artis – Pitt, 6-6 Marcus Keene – Central Michigan, 5-9 Ray Lee – Eastern Michigan, 6-3 *Donovan Mitchell – Louisville, 6-3