Pistons Need Lotto Help and NFL Draft Stuff

The Pistons' NBA season is over (thank GOD). Thanks to an ill-timed winning streak, they went from probably picking 5th in the draft to a tie for 7th (coin flip pending). Instead of having a decent shot at one of the top 3 picks, they're down to a 3.55% shot at #1, a 4.1% chance at the second pick, and a 4.85% shot at #3. Instead of choosing between McLemore, Porter and Oladipo, the Pistons are stuck with hoping beyond hope that Oladipo slips, or settling for Muhammad (who I REALLY don't like), Bennett, or Gary Harris, if he declares. If he stays in school (which I think he probably will), it gets REALLY bleak.

There is a glimmer of a silver lining in all this. The last 10 games we got a preview of what Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe might do together. Over that stretch Monroe averaged about 18 & 10, shooting 52% from the field. Drummond averaged 11 & 8, shooting 67%. There were a lot of questions as to whether those 2 could play together, and it seems the answer is yes. Instead of clogging the paint, Monroe actually had more room to work because Drummond's defender couldn't abandon him for fear of THIS. Monroe had 5 double-doubles in the last 10 games and 4 games where he scored at least 23 points, the best of which being the Philly game.

In other Pistons news, Lawrence Frank has basically declared he's ready to move on by calling out the owner and possibly Dumars as well. They don't want to pick up his option for the 4th year, since he was out-coached in most of the games they played this year. Gores has been hinting that Frank's and possibly Dumars' heads were on the block, I think Frank eased his decision by committing NBA coaching seppuku.

I teased some Lions draft updates a couple days ago and then didn't make a post yesterday... well the wait is over. First was Kevin Seifert speculating on whether the Lions will draft for immediate impact this year or go their traditional BPA route. Some mock drafts have the Lions taking OT Lane Johnson if Joeckel and Fisher are both gone. Johnson is a bit of a project, and probably wouldn't be a plug-and-play starter.

Mel Kiper, on the other hand, released his ideal draft for every team and had the Lions trading up to #1 to take CB Dee Milliner. I think Kiper is crazy, and I'm not alone. He rounded out his "ideal" draft for the Lions by having them take DE Bjoern Werner in the 2nd round and WR Aaron Dobson in the 3rd. How exactly the Lions manage to trade up 4 spots while keeping their 2nd & 3rd rounds picks, Kiper doesn't specify. Personally I think there's no way the Lions trade up in this draft, but if they do it'll be to grab one of the OT's. I'd rather the Lions take Milliner over Johnson, since CB is still a need, but offensive line is the Lions' biggest need, and especially OT. This little tidbit was in ESPN's Rumors section:

One player who had been mentioned as a possible successor to Backus was 2012 first-round pick Riley Reiff. However, after spending a year with the Iowa product, the Lions now believe that Reiff's best fit is at RG, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

To recap, the Lions spent the 23rd pick of last draft on Jeff Backus's supposed successor, despite having greater need at CB (and a better player available in Janoris Jenkins). A year later they STILL need a successor to Jeff Backus, as well as a CB and a WR (despite spending their 2nd round pick on Broyles). 2012 was a terrible draft for Mayhew. He's in a better position this draft, but his own history is not on his side.

Quick Mayhew Draft Recap:

• 2012 the Lions went into the 3rd round before addressing their greatest area of need, while at the same time reaching for players like Reiff and Broyles
• 2011 the Lions grabbed up Fairley instead of Amukamara or any of the OL prospects who were available. This was ok, except then they drafted Titus Young in the 2nd and traded up to get Mikel Leshoure...
• 2010 they had a no-brainer with Suh at #2 overall, and then traded back into the 1st to roll the dice on Best, which clearly didn't pan out
• 2009 was the Matt Stafford draft, but the Lions also had the 18th pick in that draft which they used on... Brandon Pettigrew. Available were Michael Oher, Percy Harvin, Vontae Davis, Clay Matthews, Hakeem Nicks and Kenny Britt

Some of the mistakes Mayhew has made were not foreseeable, but most of them were. I'm getting nervous about this draft, especially since Mayhew hasn't put together a solid draft YET.

The Wings dropped ANOTHER game to Calgary (that's 0-3 against a team that's 17-22-4), breaking the tie with Columbus and dropping them one spot out of the playoffs. There are 5 games left to make it up, but they'll have to dig deep. This could be the first time the Wings miss the playoffs since 1990.

**Btw, the title to this post was NOT intended to be a pun, although I managed to unintentionally create a pun worthy of NHL.com***