NBA Draft: Detroit Pistons Select PG Ebuka Okorie At No. 17 After Grizzlies Trade

With the whole hoops world gathered in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center for the 2026 NBA Draft, there were a few surprises in the first round, one of which even included the Detroit Pistons. After sitting at No. 21 for over half of the round, the Pistons executed a trade to move up four spots to the No. 17 position in order to take Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie. 

In order to pull off the trade, the Pistons obviously parted with the 21st overall selection while offering a trio of second-rounders in the deal. The Grizzlies had actually just traded back from No. 16 to 17 so that the Oklahoma City Thunder could move up one spot for Bennett Stirtz. 

Over the past month, perhaps no player in this cycle rose as much in the pre-draft process as Okorie. At the end of the college season, Okorie was projected to land at the tail end of round one if he was off the board before the second round, but the freshman guard impressed during his workouts (including with the Pistons). In fact, Detroit was so enamored with Okorie’s talent that the organization went back through his AAU days to obtain a full picture of what it’s like to have Okorie on the squad. 

As a freshman, Okorie made it his mission to put the ball in the hoops, so his 23.3 points per game average takes the headlines in terms of his stat sheet, but the 6-1, 185-pounder acquitted himself as an impactful on-ball defender at the point of attack as well. Okorie averaged 1.6 steals per game on an exceedingly large regimen of playing time (over 35 minutes per game), so the former Stanford Cardinal will fit right in with the Pistons’ defense-first mantra. 

Now, one element to consider about Okorie’s game is that he wasn’t an elite playmaker at the college level, but that could be traced back to the fact that he was the most natural scorer on Stanford’s roster a year ago. Okorie did post 3.6 assists per game which means that he did create some open looks for his teammates, but that rate is well below what is expected from an elite playmaker. On top of that, Okorie only connected on his three-point looks at 35.4%, so it would be inaccurate to label the newest Piston as a sniper from long-range either. 

Given those assessments, Okorie is a player that does not necessarily address Detroit’s two greatest flaws during the playoffs: perimeter shooting and secondary playmaking outside of Cade Cunningham. 

On one hand, Okorie’s presence in the backcourt does give the Pistons the ability to shift Daniss Jenkins more to the two in an off-ball role, but it could be seen as concerning that Detroit brought in a player already to fill the backup point guard role that Jenkins looked to lock up last year. Either way, the Pistons did bolster their backcourt with additional ball handling, and the selection of Okorie gives Detroit a bit of optionality in terms of where Jenkins will play (the one or the two) and what they’ll do with Marcus Sasser over the next year as well considering he’s up for a rookie-scale extension soon.

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