Tayshaun Prince

Keith Langlois

(EDITOR’S NOTE: While the NBA season is in limbo amid the coronavirus pandemic, Pistons.com will periodically look at past draft classes to illustrate the uncertain nature of the draft or to illustrate how even draft classes considered weak – as the 2020 draft is reputed to be – can yield impact players.)

Even in good draft classes, expectations for the 23rd pick are modest. In drafts considered thin, weak at the top or both, you’re lucky if the 23rd pick sees the floor – or sticks in the league long enough to see a second contract.

The 2002 draft was considered both – lacking in star power and in depth. In retrospect … well, it wasn’t a bad take.

Yao Ming wound up going No. 1 over Duke guard Jay Williams, the only two players in the draft considered to have superstar ceilings. But there were grave concerns about both of them.

So much was unknown about Yao other than his incredible size – 7-foot-6 and 300-plus pounds. He was from China, which had never produced an NBA player of any consequence – and, beyond Yao, still hasn’t nearly two decades after he was the driving force in making the NBA an intensely popular pastime in a nation of 1.4 billion.

Foot injuries cut short Yao’s career after eight seasons during which he flashed dominant traits. He still proved the definitively better choice over Williams, whose career ended in a catastrophic motorcycle accident after a thoroughly unimpressive rookie season in Chicago.

Joe Dumars, two years into his run as Pistons president of basketball operations at the time, was just hoping to fortify a team in transition. Later that summer, he would make two franchise-altering decisions – to sign Chauncey Billups as a free agent and to trade leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse, one year ahead of his contract’s expiration, for a young Rip Hamilton.

For that draft, he was just hoping to land someone who could contribute at some point. At 23 in a disparaged draft, he knew it would be a flawed prospect.

In Tayshaun Prince, the flaw was obvious: his physique. No player in America was more visible in that draft than Prince. He’d spent four years in Kentucky’s starting lineup, seeing his scoring average go up each season. He played in 135 college games. But he appeared so gangly and thin, bordering on frail, that there was natural suspicion about his ability to endure the rigors of an NBA season.

Dumars needed to see just how tough Prince was. So he enlisted Scotty Perry, now Knicks general manager but then his chief college scout, to find the roughest, toughest defender in college basketball to challenge Prince when he visited the Pistons for a predraft workout. Perry came up with Randy Holcomb from San Diego State.

“Randy played on the wild side,” Perry told me after Prince had established himself as an NBA starter. “Very strong, very athletic, kind of throws his body all around.”

And that’s what he did during his workout against Prince, just as Dumars hoped.

“A physical small forward,” Dumars recalled of Holcomb. “Strong as a bull. He jammed Tayshaun into the basket one time, just … BAM! And Tayshaun dropped to the floor.”

“They’re matched up in a one-on-one drill,” Perry said. “Tayshaun goes to the rim and Randy just knocked the heck out of him. Knocked him into the basket support. Tayshaun hit it hard and then he hit the floor hard, laid there. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, geez, I sure hope he’s not hurt.’ ”

Prince came to the workout already dealing with back pain. He’d had several workouts earlier in that week and the day before, a Thursday, he’d been asked to do drills with a medicine ball for the Chicago Bulls.

“I got to Detroit, woke up the next morning and my back was all messed up,” Prince remembered. “Once Randy fouled me and I fell into the basket support … my back was already tight, as it was.”

How Prince responded to that moment sealed his future with the Pistons.

“And then he popped up. And he said, ‘All right, let’s go,’ ” Dumars said. “And I looked around and said, ‘That’s my guy. That’s my guy right there.’ ”

“He gets up, checks the ball to Randy – because he’s still on offense – and he went right back at the basket,” Perry said. “I was sold. Ninety percent of guys playing probably would have settled on a jump shot and not challenged him. When he did that, that answered any questions right there.”

Dumars whipped out his phone and called Prince’s agent, letting him know that he wasn’t getting past the 23rd pick. But in a draft with so few sure things, how likely was he to get there? As the draft neared, the Pistons fretted Prince would go to Houston at 15 or to Phoenix at 22, one spot ahead of them.

Instead, here were the 10 players picked immediately ahead of Prince: Marcus Haislip, Fred Jones, Bostjan Nachbar, Jiri Welsch, Juan Dixon, Curtis Borchardt, Ryan Humphrey, Kareem Rush, Qyntel Woods and Casey Jacobsen. (Any further questions about the strength or depth of the 2002 draft?)

Prince, now a highly regarded executive for the Memphis Grizzlies, played 14 seasons and more NBA games (1,017) than the five players drafted immediately ahead of him combined – and more than anyone else in the 2002 draft class. He led the draft class in assists, was fourth in scoring and eighth in rebounding.

And as he goes about his job scouting college players now, he probably hears his own words echoing in his head as he recalled the skepticism with which scouts viewed him: “It all boils down to, can a guy play basketball? I don’t care how big or how little a guy is. If he can play the game, he can play the game.”

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Draft Tales: How the Pistons were sold on Tayshaun Prince at 23 in a weak 2002 class

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Unforgettable Moments, presented by Budweiser: The Block – Guaransheed

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The Pistons addressed their present by polishing their future and dipping into their past. A trade deadline day that Stan Van Gundy proclaimed as all quiet an hour before Thursday's 3 p.m. deadline turned deafening in the final frantic minutes with the Pistons pulling off two trades for young point guard Reggie Jackson and 2004 championship team member Tayshaun Prince.

Jackson came at the cost of D.J. Augustin and Kyle Singler, Prince returning to his rich NBA roots for backup forwards Jonas Jerebko and Gigi Datome.

"Reggie is a young player with good size and length at the guard position," Stan Van Gundy said in a prepared statement. "He's been successful as a starter playing extended minutes and we feel he's a good addition to our roster."

Jackson and Singler will both be restricted free agents after the season. It's safe to assume Van Gundy is prepared to retain Jackson, but acquiring him now gives the front office 28 games to fully assess the fit and also gives the Pistons Jackson's Bird rights.

A dynamic pick-and-roll player, Jackson's offensive potential has been largely stunted by the superstar tandem of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. He's averaging 12.8 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds – the latter a terrific number for a perimeter player – in 28 minutes a game this season. He figures to have the ball in his hands far more with the Pistons.

With Augustin headed to Oklahoma City, Jackson not only steps into the starting role he covets but figures to get all the minutes he can handle with Brandon Jennings gone for the season. Jackson isn't an accomplished 3-point shooter – 29 percent over his career, 28 percent this season – but checks off just about every other box on Van Gundy's wish list.

He'll improve the Pistons' transition offense, figures to mesh well with Drummond in two-man schemes and – at 6-foot-3, 208 pounds – gives the Pistons significantly more size than Augustin or Jennings at the position. Van Gundy says if the Pistons are going to make a playoff push over the final eight weeks, it has to start with defense – and that starts with keeping opposing point guards out of the paint. Jackson's size, tenacity and quickness should markedly aid the cause.

Jackson – assuming he's retained, and the odds of a restricted free agent getting away from the Pistons when they're unencumbered by an overburdened cap structure – gives Van Gundy the luxury of not having to rely on heavy minutes for Jennings next season in his recovery from Achilles tendon repair. If Jennings is full go, Jackson's size would give Van Gundy the option of playing them in the same backcourt in athletic lineups that could also see Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at small forward.

Prince, 34, returns to the Pistons after a two-year absence. Traded to Memphis in a three-team trade that added Jose Calderon to the Pistons in January 2013, Prince comes from Boston, which sent Jeff Green to Memphis on Jan. 12.

Prince is no longer capable of logging 35-plus minutes a game, as he did in four of his 10 full seasons with the Pistons. But he still is averaging 24 minutes this season and figures to enter into a job-sharing role at small forward with Caron Butler. Prince is averaging 7.6 points – Singler averaged 7.3 in the same 24 minutes a game – and 3.2 rebounds this season and is shooting 49 percent from the 3-point line. He might not be the shutdown defender he was a decade ago, but Prince will be assignment sure and a quick fit in Van Gundy's defensive system.

"Tayshaun Prince is certainly well known to fans in Detroit and we're pleased to welcome him back," Van Gundy said. "He fills a position of need for us at small forward with his offensive and defensive versatility."

With both Singler and Datome traded – and even Jerebko, who had played some minutes at small forward lately – Cartier Martin also moves into a more prominent role, potentially.

The Pistons also signed D-League star Quincy Miller to a 10-day contract. A highly touted Baylor freshman drafted as a 19-year-old, Miller averaged 25.3 points in 15 games for Reno in the D-League this season. Miller was taken with the 38th pick, one spot ahead of where the Pistons drafted Khris Middleton. He's considered a good defender and if he can pick up his 3-point shooting slightly – Miller hit 35 percent from the arc in the D-League – he could be a find.

Other players could be added to the mix, as well. In sending away four players, trading for two and signing another, the Pistons still have one empty roster spot. And that includes John Lucas III, whose 10-day contract expires this weekend.

As well as the Pistons, 21-33, did for themselves on Thursday, the race for the playoffs might have become even tougher. Miami's acquisition of Goran Dragic – a massive upgrade at point guard  – gives the Heat a leg up over the six-team field battling for the final two berths.

Miami, which also has a more favorable schedule including 17 of 30 remaining games at home, is currently tied with Charlotte at 22-30. The Hornets didn't make a move on deadline day, but picked up Mo Williams last week.

Among the three other teams lumped with the Pistons, right on the heels of Miami and Charlotte, nobody did more to help themselves than Detroit. Brooklyn added Thaddeus Young at the cost of Kevin Garnett. Indiana, which reportedly was the Pistons' primary competition to land Jackson, did nothing. Boston picked up point guard Isaiah Thomas in addition to adding Jerebko and Datome, but news that the Celtics will be without Jared Sullinger for an extended period with a foot injury figures to hinder a playoff push.

Tayshaun Prince

Draft Tales: How the Pistons were sold on Tayshaun Prince at 23 in a weak 2002 class

Unforgettable Moments, presented by Budweiser: The Block – Guaransheed

Pistons add Reggie Jackson, Tayshaun Prince in buzzer-beating deadline deals