You wouldn’t get very far down any credible list of the Pistons’ organizational assets without tripping across the names of Greg Monroe, Austin Daye, Jonas Jerebko and Rodney Stuckey. Given their age, production and contract status, in fact, there’s a decent chance they would comprise a consensus top four in one order or another.
What they have in common, besides representing the cream of Joe Dumars’ last four draft hauls, is that all would be taken higher – in most cases, much higher – than where the Pistons drafted them.
John Kuester went out of his way twice in the last two days to credit Joe D and his staff – vice president Scott Perry, personnel director George David and scouting director Doug Ash have been constants in that time, with scouts Durand Walker and Harold Ellis integral to the last few drafts – for providing what essentially shapes up as the Pistons’ nucleus for the foreseeable future.
A quick review of the 2007, 2009 and 2010 drafts – the Pistons traded out of the 2008 first round, when they were picking 29th – shows just how right Dumars got it each time.