2018 draft

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AUBURN HILLS – Let’s put a few facts on the table and see where they lead us.

The Pistons don’t have a first-round draft pick. Their pick in the second round, 42nd overall, comes at a point in the draft where history suggests they have, at best, a 50-50 shot at landing someone who’ll leave much of a footprint on the NBA.

Stanley Johnson is the only player of the 12 under contract for next season who held a spot in last season’s rotation that can be labeled a natural small forward. The free-agent class is thin in wing players, who have become a coveted species in an era that places a premium on the ability to guard multiple positions and provide some floor spacing via the threat of a 3-point shot.

Add that up and the hunch is that Ed Stefanski, the guy running the front office and the one who’ll ultimately decide how to spend that middling asset of pick 42 on Thursday, is exploring ways to come out of draft night with a player capable of, at minimum, complementing Johnson in the small forward rotation in 2018-19.

He might be comfortable enough that he can sit at 42 and land that player. After all, Stefanski was part of the Memphis front office that last season landed Dillon Brooks with the 45th pick. Brooks wound up starting 74 games, averaging 11.0 points and scoring with relative efficiency for a rookie on a team that was in scramble mode virtually all season after Mike Conley went down after 12 games.

Brooks, as I argued before Stefanski was hired as senior adviser to Tom Gores, is the realistic best-case scenario for the Pistons with the 42nd pick.

A few more facts: The Pistons can’t use all of the mid-level exception without risking luxury tax and the lack of free-agent depth at the wing spots means the players most likely to be of immediate help are going to go fast and be costly. Waiting for free agency to solve that hole is risky. Thursday night might be Stefanski’s best shot at finding a solution short of the trade route, which could create a hole elsewhere.

At 42, you can’t afford to do anything but take the player you think has the best chance to carve out a meaningful NBA career. Stefanski won’t have the luxury of considering roster need. Now, it just might happen that he sits at 42 and the best available player also happens to be a small forward and, beyond that, someone as physically and emotionally capable of contributing as a rookie as Brooks was.

The greater likelihood, though, is that player – if he exists – will be taken from late in the first round to somewhere before pick 42 in the second. The draft tends to thin out when you get past the mid to late 30s. One relevant example: the 2012 draft when the Pistons had picks 39 and 44 in the second round. At 39, they took Khris Middleton and gave him three years, two guaranteed on his contract. At 44, they took Kim English and gave him only one guaranteed year – the best reflection of the reality of how deep the talent pool usually runs.

If Stefanski sees someone with a Middleton ceiling at pick 27 or 33 or 37, I’d expect him to do what he can to trade up. Who that trading partner might be, who knows?

Philadelphia picks 26th in the first round and 38th and 39th in the second among six second-round picks. Fair to guess the 76ers would be open to dealing at least one of those picks. If creating more cap space for a run at LeBron James is a thing in Philly, getting off the guaranteed money for the 26th pick might be attractive to 76ers management.

Orlando has picks at 35 and 41 ahead of the Pistons and already a ton of youth on its roster. Ditto for Sacramento, which has the 36th pick. Atlanta picks third, 19th and 30th in the first round, then picks again at 33. That might be Stefanski’s opening.

It’s tough to move up. Teams value draft picks more today than ever, another byproduct of the influence of analytics and the reality of the salary cap. Finding players who can out-produce their salary is invaluable. The more picks you have, the better your odds of finding such players. It might simply be too pricey for the Pistons to move up even a half-dozen or 10 spots.

So there’s no guarantee the Pistons will be able to do anything more than stay put at 42 and take their chances with finding this year’s Dillon Brooks sometime around 10 p.m.  Thursday. But you might want to tune in an hour or so earlier than that, just in case.

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Pistons in a spot that argues for them to explore moving up from 42nd pick

Keith Langlois

ID CARD: 6-foot-3¼ guard, Kansas, sophomore, 21 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 47th by ESPN.com; 54th by SI.com; unranked by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: Shooting range and speed in transition are Newman’s best traits. A five-star recruit generally regarded as a top-10 player in his class, Newman stayed home in 2015 to attend Mississippi State. While he enjoyed relative success for a freshman – Newman averaged 11.3 points in 28 minutes a game and shot 38 percent from the 3-point arc – it wasn’t quite the one-and-done season expected of him. Newman transferred to Kansas, sat out 2017-18 and emerged as an NBA prospect as the 2018-19 season progressed in a perimeter-oriented offense. Newman averaged 14.2 points, third behind fellow draft candidates Devonte Graham and Svi Mykhailiuk, and shot .415 from the 3-point line in 32 minutes a game. While Graham isn’t a classic point guard, he can serve as a secondary ballhandler – he’s not limited to being a spot-up shooter, in other words, and shows some flashes of being able to play in pick and roll. He’s a scorer in an era where there’s a premium on players who can make plays and produce points.

SCOUTS WONDER: Newman measured a little less than might have been expected at the NBA draft combine. And he didn’t exhibit quite the athleticism that his reputation suggested. Newman’s maximum vertical leap was 33½ inches, a middling result. That casts doubt on Newman’s ability to defend effectively against anything other than NBA point guards. Can he transform himself into a legitimate point guard option? If not, that might limit his ceiling to bench player, but the Pistons are picking 42nd; the odds say they’ll be fortunate to land someone who contributes in any form.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 6-foot-¼ – That’s what Newman measured without shoes at the combine, which means he got a 3-inch boost from shoes – an unusual disparity. The only other player at the combine who had more than a 2-inch disparity was Kansas teammate Udoka Azubuike, who was 6-foot-10 without shoes but 7-foot-¼ with shoes.

MONEY QUOTE: “I think that’s one of my biggest strengths is I’m able to play on the ball or off the ball and still be productive. I think that is one of the things that teams are looking at. I can make plays for other guys” – Malik Newman at the NBA draft combine last month.

PISTONS FIT: As with other guard prospects, Newman would find a crowded backcourt were he to be the pick at 42. As a second rounder, it’s virtually a given that Newman would spend a good deal of his rookie season in the G League – perhaps testing his ability to transition to point guard – while Ish Smith plays out the last year of his Pistons contract. It’s possible the Pistons will lose Smith and Reggie Bullock in free agency after the 2018-19 season, at which time a combo guard with Newman’s scoring ability might find his way into the rotation.

BOTTOM LINE: Newman was a 2015 McDonald’s All-American generally regarded as the best guard in that year’s recruiting class. While that doesn’t carry a lot of sway with NBA personnel evaluators, it at least means that Newman’s been on their radar since his high school days and quite possibly that one or several scouts saw something from him in those days that they believe can be resuscitated in the right NBA environment. Newman’s ability to knock down shots and his potential to score in transition are increasingly coveted assets. A front office that sees Newman for what he can do and feels his shortcomings can be effectively masked might find him among the best options once the top 25 or so prospects are off the board.

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Second-Round Candidate: Malik Newman

ID CARD: 6-foot-5¼ point guard, Wichita State, sophomore, 21 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 49th by ESPN.com; 50th by SI.com; 11th among guards by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: His 3-point shot is Shamet’s carrying tool. His agent calls him the best shooter in the draft and Shamet exudes boundless confidence in his shooting ability. As the rare top-100 recruit to Wichita State, Shamet was on track to contribute behind the Fred Van Vleet-Ron Baker backcourt as a freshman but a foot injury limited him to two games and induced a redshirt year. Shamet hit 44 percent from the 3-point arc in both his redshirt freshman and sophomore seasons while starting 68 of 69 games. Shamet also exhibited poise and floor vision, registering 5.2 assists and just 2.1 turnovers in more than 30 minutes a game while earning first-team all-conference honors. It probably won’t hurt Shamet’s evaluation that both Van Vleet and Baker made NBA rosters – and quickly moved into their team’s rotations – despite going undrafted out of Wichita State under Gregg Marshall.

SCOUTS WONDER: Though Shamet has very good size for a point guard, his relatively short wing span (6-foot-6¾), slight frame (188 pounds) and perceived middling athleticism casts doubt on his ability to make his way. Shooting overcomes plenty of shortcomings, but it’s tougher to judge the smarts and intangibles necessary to atone for athletic deficiencies. While Shamet has plenty of experience running a team in college, his ability to do it effectively at the NBA level is a question mark given the doubts about his quickness, explosion and strength. Those doubts were hardly dispelled at the NBA draft combine, where Shamet showed he could shoot but perhaps didn’t assuage misgivings about other parts of his game.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 65.5 – That was Shamet’s true shooting percentage – a figure that factors in free throw shooting and accounts for the value of a 3-point shot over a 2-pointer – which figures to endear him to front offices that place a premium on shot selection and efficiency, which is virtually every front office going today.

MONEY QUOTE: “I try to stay solid. I don’t ever try to make spectacular plays. I try to do just what I feel I can do, play multiple positions – on or off the ball, feel comfortable at either spot, honestly, whether it’s facilitating, scoring, whatever the case may be. I feel like I have a high basketball IQ, as well, just a cerebral player. Not going to wow you with crossing people up or doing things a lot of guys in the limelight do all the time, but I feel like I’m a solid player – pretty steady across the board.” – Landry Shamet at the NBA draft combine last month.

PISTONS FIT: The Pistons are pretty heavy in the backcourt for 2018-19 with Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith as the 1-2 punch at point guard, an option on Dwight Buycks’ contract to be the No. 3 point guard, Reggie Bullock and Luke Kennard to occupy the 48 minutes at shooting guard and Langston Galloway as insurance at both spots. But they could still find Shamet intriguing for his shooting, intelligence, size and versatility with an eye toward 2019-20 and beyond.

BOTTOM LINE: Shamet isn’t the type of player who leaps off of videotape and he might not be the guy you’d pick out in layup line as being a standout. But his shooting range and discipline in shot selection give him a foothold on finding his niche in the NBA and his intelligence and demeanor should allow him to reach whatever his ceiling might be. He might not be a pure point guard but in an era that puts a premium on deploying multiple shooters, ballhandlers and playmakers that no longer should limit his appeal or his ability to contribute.

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Second-Round Candidate: Landry Shamet

AUBURN HILLS – If it was ever the case that the only realistic options for a basketball player with no remaining college eligibility were the NBA or a 9-to-5 desk job, it was a long time ago.

Today the options are limited by little more than the imagination. The G League is one, but so are the scores of pro leagues that populate Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. There’s even a 3-on-3 league, the BIG3, that began play last summer.

So when someone like Dakota Mathias works out for the Pistons, as he did on Wednesday in advance of next week’s NBA draft, it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. Mathias, not considered a top 100 prospect by ESPN.com in a draft that goes 60 deep, will log about 10 workouts with various NBA teams by the time the draft hits and that gives him a chance to meet and make an impression on a few handfuls of folks from each front office.

If it doesn’t lead to an immediately lucrative job playing basketball, it could open a door next season – or it could lead to a job in coaching or scouting that eventually becomes a career. If Mathias doesn’t hear his name called next Thursday, the dream doesn’t die there.

“Everybody wants to get drafted, but sometimes if it’s not the right fit it might be better to go undrafted and you can see how you fit with a different team,” Mathias said. “Either way it goes, we’re going to find the right place and make the most out of it, regardless.”

The first step for Mathias should he go undrafted would be to earn an invitation to Summer League. Going through the draft workout process gives teams the chance to see how if what he did well in college – Matthias played four years at Purdue, hit better than 45 percent from the 3-point arc in his last two seasons and was known as a tough defender – translates to the NBA as well as what else he might have in his bag of tricks.

Derek Willis went undrafted out of Kentucky last season but went to Summer League with the Pistons and earned an invitation to training camp as a designated “affiliate player” – meaning the Pistons could assign him to their G League affiliate in Grand Rapids without exposing him to the league draft.

Willis attended a free-agent minicamp at the team’s practice facility last week and is weighing his options for Summer League and beyond. Among the decisions confronting him is to chase more lucrative dollars in international leagues or return to the G League and have a clearer path to the NBA.

“I know the (G League) base salary is going up this year, which is really good, and it appeals to a lot of people not wanting to go overseas,” he said. “You just weigh the pros and cons of it. Everyone’s situation is different. If it’s just me by myself, you go through training camp and you’re probably going to get $50,000 for that and then you’re going to get $35,000 coming from the G League. That’s a nice little salary to stay in the States.”

Alize Johnson, who was in the workout group Wednesday with Mathias, is considered right on the draft bubble. One of the nation’s top rebounders last season at Missouri State, he’s ranked No. 61 by ESPN.com.

“I do think my name is going to be called, but at the end of the day that’s out of my control,” he said. “I’m just going out in these workouts and trying to compete as much as possible so I can hear my name.”

If he does, great. If he doesn’t, there’s still a literal world of possibilities for Johnson to make his way in life playing – or working in – the game he’s loved since he was a kid growing up in Williamsport, Pa.

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Pistons draft workouts an entrée to a world of possible career paths

ID CARD: 6-foot-5¾ shooting guard, Duke, freshman, 19 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 39th by ESPN.com; 42nd by SI.com; 20th among guards by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: It takes some projection, but Trent – son of a solid NBA journeyman who played nine years with four franchises – could develop into a solid or better scoring wing. Like fellow Duke frosh and one-and-done players Marvin Bagley, Wendell Carter and Trevon Duval, Trent was a five-star recruit who had to play a similar role – a secondary role, in other words – in college as he’ll likely have to play in the NBA. Trent hit 40 percent of his 3-point shots and took more than half of his field-goal tries, 6.5 a game, from the arc. In an era where the 3-point shot becomes more integral to offenses every season, Trent’s standing as one of the premier shooters in this draft class stands as his biggest appeal to teams on draft night.

SCOUTS WONDER: What other tool in Trent’s bag can be developed to complement his shooting and enable him to prove worthy of a draft pick and challenge for a spot in someone’s rotation? Duke’s perimeter defense was shaky enough this season that Mike Krzyzewski eventually had to change course and become an almost exclusively zone team. Trent has enough of a physical profile – a solid 204-pound frame and nearly a 6-foot-9 wing span – to suggest he can develop into a capable defender. The book on Trent is that he isn’t an explosive athlete, though teams might find differently in predraft workouts. He’s 19, which means there’s probably plenty Trent can do to add strength and improve quickness and agility.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 2.99 – Trent’s time in the shuttle run at the NBA draft combine was one sample of an athletic profile that defies conventional wisdom about his middling athleticism. That was sixth best at the combine. His sprint time was 13th best. His standing vertical leap of 33½ inches was third best and his maximum vertical of 39½ was less than 3 inches off the top showing.

MONEY QUOTE: “Y’all only saw my son do the speed limit. If you take a Bugatti and put it on a pedestrian street, you’re only allowed to use 60 miles per hour.  Because the car is driving 60 miles per hour, does that mean it cannot go 200 miles per hour? That’s how I feel about my son’s talent.” – Gary Trent as reported by Jonathan M. Alexander of the Raleigh News &amp; Observer on how his son didn’t get to show all of his game while blending in with Duke’s loaded roster.

PISTONS FIT: While there is far less angst about rigid adherence to position slotting these days, it’s also true that you’ve got to be able to guard a position to play it more than occasionally. So can Trent guard small forwards as well as shooting guards? Maybe. With Reggie Bullock and Luke Kennard, plus Langston Galloway, the Pistons don’t have an immediate need at shooting guard, though Bullock will be a free agent after the 2018-19 season and the Pistons will be challenged to retain him in free agency.

BOTTOM LINE: If the front office sees more upside than questions with Trent, the roster and a greater need at small forward than shooting guard is unlikely to deter them from grabbing Trent with the 42nd pick – the only one the Pistons hold for next week’s draft. At 19 and with plenty of development work ahead of him before Trent realistically would factor into the rotation, the timeline for Trent to challenge for a role is more likely to be 2019-20 and beyond. It remains to be seen how a new Pistons management team will utilize their G League Grand Rapids Drive affiliate, but Trent would seem a prime candidate to spend a good chunk of time learning the NBA game at that level. With shooting at a premium and Trent managing to hit 40 percent as a college freshman while learning how to fit in among the typical Duke gaggle of NBA prospects, it should surprise no one if he were to show up on the short list of Pistons possibilities at 42.

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Second-Round Candidate: Gary Trent Jr.

ID CARD: 6-foot-4½ point guard, Penn State, sophomore, 20 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 56th by ESPN.com; 51st by SI.com; 18th among guards by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: Carr has plus size for a point guard and he was productive (19.6 points a game) as a 20-year-old in his sophomore season. The rare four-star recruit to sign with Penn State, Carr was the best player on a mediocre team two years running at State College. His assist-to-turnover ratio of better than 2:1 suggests he has a chance to stick at point guard, though his strength always figures to be as a scorer. Carr shows strengths as a rebounder, playmaker and defender, though there’s no overwhelming strength other than the outstanding 3-point percentage of .433 as a sophomore on 5.5 attempts per game from beyond the arc.

SCOUTS WONDER: Carr had the ball in his hands on every possession at Penn State but to carve out a role in the NBA his greatest appeal will be as a combo guard who can play the point but play off the ball, spot up and knock down threes, as well. And that’s a question. And as impressive as the .433 3-point shooting was as a sophomore, Carr hit just .320 as a freshman and in both of his college seasons he shot less than 40 percent from inside the arc, raising questions about his effectiveness in the paint or from the mid-range.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 25 – That was Carr’s standing vertical jump at the NBA draft combine last month, tied for the lowest recorded. He also had poor times in the lane agility and shuttle runs, the worst or close to it among perimeter players and beaten out by many big men. The truth about any draft is that once you get past the top 20 to 25 players, there is very little separation for the next 30 players or so. Most teams don’t put enormous stock in athletic testing numbers, but Carr’s are poor enough for a guard that it could be the tiebreaker for a lot of front offices.

MONEY QUOTE: “My great vision, I feel like that will transfer to the next level. I feel like I have a great knack for getting guys open shots. I have a great feel for the game. Some great scorers at that level – probably a great scorer on whatever team drafts me – and I feel like I’ll do a great job getting him the ball. Also just playing in pick and rolls and scoring off of that and getting the bigs involved.” – Tony Carr on what he believes NBA teams will find appealing about him as he spoke at the NBA draft combine in Chicago last month

PISTONS FIT: Carr reported interviewing with the Pistons at the combine, so he’s at least on their radar. If Carr hits his mark and can handle both backcourt positions, his size and 3-point shooting will hold long-term appeal. There wouldn’t be an obvious path to playing time for him as a rookie – not with Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith at point guard; Luke Kennard and Reggie Bullock at shooting guard; and Langston Galloway backing up at both spots – but Smith and Bullock will be free agents a year from now and Carr could be in line to fight for minutes at that point.

BOTTOM LINE: How much will his poor athletic testing at the combine hurt Carr? Teams will be looking to dig a little deeper into those numbers and how Carr trained for the combine to gauge if those are unfixable flaws or areas that can be addressed with modern NBA training methods. Then Carr’s ability to handle point guard at the NBA level – and his projected effectiveness in pick and roll – will be determining factors in how he’s assessed across league front offices. His stock has taken a hit and while the consensus doesn’t preclude any individual team in love with him from taking Carr ahead of the Pistons pick at 42, it appears more likely than not that he’ll be available to them.

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Second-Round Candidate: Tony Carr

ID CARD: 6-foot-6 wing, Tulane, junior, 21 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 31st by ESPN.com; 31st by SI.com; 12th among wings by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: Frazier projects as a classic 3-and-D wing type who took a step in the last of his three college seasons toward becoming a legitimate threat from the 3-point arc. After hovering in the mid to high 20s from 3-point range in his first two college seasons, Frazier hit at 38.5 percent on 3.0 attempts per game as a junior for the Green Wave, where he was coached the past two seasons by longtime NBA player and coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. Frazier’s best end of the floor, though, still figures to be defense. Frazier fared well at the NBA draft combine and strikes a physical profile – long and rangy – that in combination with his affinity for playing defense will make him an attractive commodity on draft night.

SCOUTS WONDER: Is there enough of a ceiling on offense for Frazier to be more than a back-of-the-rotation defensive specialist? Frazier couldn’t lead his team to much success in the middle-of-the-road American Athletic Conference, where the Green Wave finished near the bottom at 5-13. He wasn’t the primary ballhandler, yet led the team in turnovers at 2.6 a game. He didn’t show much of an off-the-dribble game, either, though with development Frazier’s speed and athleticism should at least make him dangerous in transition and as a straight-line driver. Is he too slight, at 198 pounds, to effectively guard small forwards?

NUMBER TO NOTE: – 7-foot-1¾  – That’s Frazier’s wing span, with a standing reach of 8-foot-9 – crazy numbers for a wing defender but important for the disruptive potential to shooters, passers and cutters in an era where floor spacing is a critical underlying component of a successful offense.

MONEY QUOTE: “I like defending. I don’t really care about scoring. I like playing defense. I just know defense creates offense, so that’s what I like to do. Everybody likes to see somebody play defense because nowadays nobody really plays defense.” – Melvin Frazier at the NBA draft combine in Chicago last month

PISTONS FIT: With James Ennis an unrestricted free agent, the biggest immediate opening in the rotation is behind Stanley Johnson at small forward. While it’s not likely the new front office will bank on the No. 42 pick – that’s all the Pistons take into the June 21 draft – as the primary avenue to filling that void, a player with Frazier’s college experience and measurables could change their thinking.

BOTTOM LINE: If the Pistons went to the combine hoping to keep Frazier under wraps, they probably left disappointed. Frazier participated in five-on-five scrimmages on the first day but pulled out after an impressive showing, leading to some speculation about exactly what had been communicated to his agent regarding his draft status. Frazier’s rankings have begun to creep up in various media assessments, which might mean nothing but probably is a reflection of feedback based on his combine showing. It’s less than likely that Frazier would be available to the Pistons at 42, but he’d immediately become a top-tier contender to be the pick if he were.

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Second-Round Candidate: Melvin Frazier

ID CARD: 6-foot-2½ point guard, Duke, freshman, 19 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 55th by ESPN.com, ranked 46th by SI.com, 22nd among guards by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: It won’t shock you to learn that Duval was a five-star recruit considered the top point guard in his class because, well, that’s pretty much all Duke recruits these days. Explosive athleticism – the ability to play above the rim, get into the paint, and hound the ball defensively – is Duval’s stock in trade. Duval was overtaken by other freshmen point guards – Trae Young, Collin Sexton and Shea Gilgeous-Alexander, all expected to be lottery picks or close to it – as he had to share the spotlight with Duke freshmen Marvin Bagley, Wendell Carter and Gary Trent Jr., as well as four-year star Grayson Allen. He managed a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and played 30 minutes a game.

SCOUTS WONDER: Will Duval be able to shoot well enough to make an impact in the NBA? He didn’t show that ability at Duke, for sure, hitting just 29 percent of his 3-point attempts and taking about a third of his shots from the arc. And for all the hype he took with him to Durham, Duval didn’t turn heads with his playmaking ability, either. He jumps out for his speed and quickness, but that didn’t translate into a game-changing dynamic very often. Duval was anticipated to be a one and done player, but his hand was all but forced on the matter when Mike Krzyzewski recruited the top point guard in the 2018 class, Tre Jones, brother of former Duke one and done and current Minnesota Timberwolves backup point guard Tyus Jones. It feels less like Duval headed to the NBA on merit and more like a fear of being passed over by Jones.

NUMBER TO NOTE: – 41.5 – That was Duval’s vertical jump as recorded at the NBA draft combine last month in Chicago, one-half inch off of the top mark recorded. Duval also was one-half inch off the top standing vertical jump (34 inches). Those numbers confirmed what was suspected about Duval: He won’t be overmatched athletically in the NBA.

MONEY QUOTE: “I think pick and roll, period, is one of my strengths. It’s something that I’ve been doing for a long time – in high school, AAU, it’s something that me and my dad have been training pretty much all my life. I think (my skill set) translates well to the NBA. My game suits the NBA more. Transition or even in the half court, I feel as if I can use my speed with pick and roll.” – Trevon Duval at the NBA draft combine last month.

PISTONS FIT: While it’s not their greatest need – the Pistons are going to be on the hunt for wings this off-season, particularly those capable of guarding a variety of small forwards – grooming a young point guard makes sense with Ish Smith heading into the final season of the three-year deal he signed in 2016 and Reggie Jackson having two years left on his deal.

BOTTOM LINE: Somebody’s going to grab Duval based on his track record before arriving at Duke. There’s a case to be made that Duke’s personnel this season wasn’t conducive to bringing out the best in Duval and that he’ll thrive in an NBA where the emphasis is on spreading the floor with shooters and attacking the openings that creates with explosive playmakers. Duval doesn’t have the shooting half of that combination in place yet, but it’s easier to groom someone to be a shooter than it is to make a plodder into an explosive playmaker. The Pistons only have one pick – 42 – and maybe it turns out there are still too many surer things available at that spot, but Duval has enough intrigue to put himself in the conversation.