Stan Van Gundy has said precious little for public consumption regarding the June 25 draft. He spoke to season ticketholders last week during a Palace viewing party for the draft lottery and said there that assistant general manager Brian Wright has told him consistently this season the Pistons would get a good player picking anywhere in the top 12.
Mostly he's let general manager Jeff Bower be the voice of the front office to discuss the draft. And Bower is really good at a skill most longtime GMs adopt – the ability to talk at great length without leaving anything resembling a coherent trail of bread crumbs.
But Van Gundy did talk about the draft in an interview on WJR radio last week and threw out a few interesting nuggets concerning the possibilities with the No. 8 pick: "There's five wing players, all could be small forwards ... who all could be very helpful, very talented young guys. And then there's probably one big guy and a couple of guards, couple of two guards, that we'd target in there, I think."
As I wrote in this week's edition of Pistons Mailbag, you could waste a lot of time trying to figure out which players Van Gundy's talking about there – way too many variables in play to draw any meaningful conclusions.
The part I found interesting, though, was "a couple of guards, couple of two guards, that we'd target in there, I think."
Shooting guard is the most stable position on the roster as it stands now. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Pistons in minutes played last season and Jodie Meeks finished strong. His inconsistencies earlier both he and Van Gundy trace to missing nearly two months and the regular season's first 22 games with a back injury that basically immobilized him for several weeks. Van Gundy thought enough of them after the first week of training camp that he looked for opportunities to use them simultaneously whenever he could despite Meeks shooting well below career norms from the 3-point line.
So he's easily got all 48 minutes at shooting guard covered for next season with spillover to small forward for Caldwell-Pope likely. He can't say that about any other position. He needs significant players at both small forward and power forward, maybe starters depending on what they do about Caron Butler's option and how Van Gundy views him at 35. Brandon Jennings' recovery from Achilles tendon repair clouds the picture at point guard, though Spencer Dinwiddie has a chance to solidify it with a breakout Summer League performance. And with both Greg Monroe and Joel Anthony headed to free agency, backup center is fairly high on the off-season to-do list, as well.
But shooting guard? Forget the identity of the prospects Van Gundy is talking about. The fact he claims that among a list of maybe eight players (five wings, one big man, two shooting guards) under heavy consideration, two play a position without need for immediate bolstering suggests the Pistons are staying true to what they claimed: They're focused on getting the player with the best chance at leaving a lasting impact without regard for position or current roster construction.
And that should be encouraging to fans more interested in sustained success and the building of a legitimate title contender than quick fixes that might (or might not) be likelier to lead to a more immediate playoff berth but fall short of roster-building ideals.
Look at the team seemingly poised to win its franchise's first NBA title in 40 years, Golden State. The Warriors went into the 2011 draft seemingly set in their backcourt with Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry combining to average nearly 43 points a game. Their frontcourt, conversely, was a mess. They'd whiffed by spending the No. 6 pick the previous summer on Ekpe Udoh – leaving Monroe for the Pistons a pick later – and were starting Andris Biedrins at center, overworking David Lee at power forward and trying to milk minutes out of the likes of Vladimir Radmanovic and Dan Gadzuric.
But with the 11th pick, the Warriors ignored need and went for the player they felt had the greatest chance to be regarded as a valuable asset one day: Klay Thompson.
There's a pretty simple but profound lesson in there. Draft for need over talent and you'll leave yourself with the same need. The Warriors could have found some productive big men – Markieff Morris went 13th, Nicola Vucevic 16th, Donatas Motiejunas 20th and Kenneth Faried 22nd – without being accused of "reaching," but there's no question who represents the greatest value today: Thompson.
By the trade deadline of Thompson's rookie season, he'd shown the Warriors enough that they were able to turn Ellis into Andrew Bogut – anchor of the league's top defensive team – and help fix the frontcourt. (Didn't hurt that they plucked Draymond Green out of the second round of the next draft, either.)
Is there a player like Thompson in this year's draft who'll be available with the No. 8 pick? Maybe. Mario Hezonja, according to some, is the best shooter available, though he might settle in at small forward. And our draft series on Friday is going to look at one player who not only patterns his playing style after Thompson but actually bears a physical resemblance to him, Kentucky freshman Devin Booker.
On the surface, there's no room for Booker and drafting him will leave the Pistons at least a few bodies short up front. But if Booker turns out to be the best player they could have taken when we look back in four years, there's little doubt the Pistons will be better off for doing so.