T-23. Detroit Pistons: 10.5 points
- 2001: Mehmet Okur: 2 (1x all-star, double points for 2nd round pick)
- 2002: Tayshaun Prince: 0.5
- 2003: Darko Milicic: -2 (bust with 2nd overall pick)
- 2007: Arron Afflalo: 0.5
- 2010: Greg Monroe: 0.5
- 2012: Khris Middleton: 4 (2x all-star, double points for 2nd round pick)
- 2012: Andre Drummond: 4 (2x all-star, 1x 3rd team)
- 2013: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: 0.5
- 2014: Spencer Dinwiddie: 0.5
Do the Pistons have a Darko curse? In the 16 drafts, since they took Mr. Bust himself, the Pistons have drafted a total of two all-stars. One of those all-stars, Khris Middleton, was traded after his rookie year and only played in 27 games with the team. If you want to go back even further, that leaves Andre Drummond as the only player to be drafted by and make an all-star team with the Pistons since they took Grant Hill in 1994.
The Pistons have had the same issue as the Knicks for a while now: bad, but not bad enough. Since 2010, Detroit has had 6 lottery picks and 5 in the top 10, but the lotto balls haven’t bounced there way enough to land them a pick any better than 7th during that time. And in two other years (2014 and 2018) they would have had a selection in the lottery but had already traded those picks away.
The Pistons are due for some lotto ball luck, and it can’t come soon enough for a fan base that hasn’t had much to get excited about since their trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2008.