Wild Pistons Off-Season Set to Begin

There was something unsettling in seeing Greg Monroe walk across the NBA Draft stage with a Pistons hat on. Personally, seeing a Georgetown Hoya walking anywhere tends to make my stomach churn, let alone the top draft pick of the team I’ve followed from my first days alive. In his just-drafted interview, I found the root of my uneasy stomach – he never did a pre-draft workout for the Pistons.

The Pistons have known about their seventh pick for nearly two months, and never thought once to bring Monroe to the Palace for a physical or a venue tour. If you have hung onto any of your Pistons fandom following last season’s spend and lose debacle, it might be time to put your fan safety deposit box to use. This pick screams of a pending trade, and Joe Dumars needs to do something pretty drastic to get the ship righted for 2011.

I have a unique perspective on Greg Monroe having watched him and despised the uniform he placed on for two years. There’s something significant about being the Georgetown center, and Monroe always played like he had those weights on his back. He was tabbed as the freshman of the year in the Big East, an ominous honor in a year when Georgetown had one of its worst seasons in years. I would not be shocked to see him struggle in the NBA as size doesn’t always mean success when heading to the pro league.

With a team being built around players like Stuckey, Gordon, Villanueva, Jerebko, Maxiell and now Monroe, the Pistons will look to gain the most value out of their last prized blue chip – Tayshaun Prince. The former Kentucky product, and perhaps Richard Hamilton, are the only remaining pieces that might bring anything in return to Detroit. It’s clear that the last season came out of the blue and hopefully the Pistons will realize that one more season in the dumps can devastate a loyal fan base in a tough economy.