Asked Tuesday whether he prefers the safe prospect with a high floor or the risky one with a high ceiling, Troy Weaver didn't hesitate: "For me, I like the long ball."
"I'm not bunting or trying to slap it into short center," said Weaver. "I'm going to take a big swing, especially if I only have one chance at it. If I got three chances, OK, I might bunt one. But if I got one chance at it, I'm going for the big fly. That's me. I mean, what do they say? Well, we can't say that anymore."
(They say that chicks dig the long ball, but we digress.)
Weaver and the Pistons enter Thursday night's NBA Draft with the No. 5 pick, their lone first-round selection and, they hope, their final top-10 pick for a long while. If they stand pat -- and it's no sure thing they will -- they'll likely be choosing between this group of names: Cam Whitmore, Jarace Walker, Cam Whitmore and one of the Thompson twins.
"Looking at the roster construction, really think that either Taylor Hendricks or Cam Whitmore are the two players that really fit the roster," NBA Draft analyst and former Detroit Mercy star Rashad Phillips told the Stoney & Jansen Show. "And given the new coach with Monty (Williams) as a developing type of guy, a culture builder, I think Cam Whitmore or Taylor Hendricks will be the right choice for Detroit."
Whitmore, one of the youngest players in the draft, is an explosive 6'7 forward who won Big East Rookie of the Year last season at Villanova. He averaged 12.5 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 34.3 percent from three.
Phillips describes him as "a kid that plays a gritty style of basketball that kind of represents Detroit in itself. He's explosive in transition, picks up on things really quickly and he's a terrific kid."
Hendricks is a 6'9 forward who would fit the Pistons' needs as a shooter and defender on the wing, with the tools to grow into an impact player in the NBA. He averaged 15.1 points and 7.0 rebounds and shot 39.4 percent from three last season at Central Florida.
"He does a terrific job of switching out and guarding guys on the perimeter. He can knock down the three-point shot and he's also a really good athlete," said Phillips. "So I think both of those guys fit the culture that Monty is going to try to build there in Detroit."
And both guys might be viewed as a reach at No. 5. Of course, pundits said the same thing about Steven Adams when Weaver steered the Thunder toward drafting him 12th overall in 2013 -- "and Steven Adams turned out being pretty good," Weaver said.
"That could have been deemed as a risk, but he wasn't a risk," Weaver said. "It was just peoples' evaluations."
Walker, the Houston forward with elite defensive tools, remains in play for the Pistons, as do Amen and Ausar Thompson -- though Phillips isn't quite as high on the twins as others are. He did say that Amen Thompson "has a little bit of De'Aaron Fox in him, athletic in space, he can leap, he can get around people with his excellent speed."
"But he is challenged from a jump shooting standpoint and so is his brother, who is more of an off-ball player. Again, has a little hitch in his shot. I love both off the twins, I think they're highly-talented players. Any team that gets them is going to have to really invest in their development in the next year or two to get your true value," Phillips said.
Other highlights from Phillips' interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On whether Zion Williamson potentially fits with the Pistons: "I do, I think he fits from the aspect of, when you have a guy like Cade Cunningham who's a dual forward, a multi-faceted wing that gets people involved, has the ability to score, and with Zion, his athleticism, his ability to catch lobs, to rim run, he will fit the way the Pistons are looking to play with Coach Monty."
On the draft prospects of Michigan stars Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard: "It's about team fit. Kobe Bufkin is a terrific player. He reminds me a lot of D'Angelo Russell coming out of Ohio State, really smooth, left handed, really good shooter, excellent speed, can play out of the pick and roll. He has some value there with his offensive tangibles that are really marketable at the NBA level.
"And Jett, here's 6'7 small forward that does a terrific job of getting himself open and can knock down shots, has an excellent frame and obviously the pro pedigree of his father helps him a lot. Those guys will be first-round picks. I think Bufkin may come off the board first, but it also depends what the team needs are. I like their futures."
On the NBA future of Emoni Bates: "His ability to score, to get his own shot and create space and really make some of the tougher shots, I think what separates NBA players from college players, or what separates great players from good players, is the ability to make hard shots look normal. And Emoni has proven that he can make the difficult shots that the Jayson Tatums and the Michael Porter Jr's, all these high-level wings, he's proven that he can make those shots. So there is room for him at the NBA level, it's just going to come down to which franchise wants to give him an opportunity to prove his value."
On whether Antoine Davis deserves a shot in the NBA: "Looking at Antoine Davis, there's nothing about his physical stature that holds him back from being the greatest scorer of our generation, first of all. Last time I checked in basketball, the team with the most points wins. So you always gotta find a guy that can do that, and there's nobody in the draft who can do that better than him. He's a terrific kid, a hard worker. He deserves a shot, and not just a shot in this league, he deserves a roster spot in this league for what he's done and what he's capable of doing for an NBA franchise."
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