The Detroit Pistons have the 21st overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but it is unclear if a sharp-shooting three-point threat will fall to the Motor City squad
With the 2026 NBA Draft arriving early next week, the Detroit Pistons are near an end of their pre-draft evaluations, but there are still a lot of question marks heading into the event. After winning 60 games in the regular season, the Pistons were stunted in the playoffs due to a lack of secondary creation and relatively thin three-point shooting depth outside of Duncan Robinson, but which area should Detroit choose to address first?
The Pistons also have their starting forward, Tobias Harris, entering unrestricted free agency this offseason, so there’s a multitude of directions that could be pursued with the No. 21 overall pick. But for the most part, Detroit is expected to heavily prioritize perimeter gravity and long-range shooting with their mid-to-late first round pick, and Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon spoke about the difficulty of finding a skilled, consistent long-range threat at the pivot point of round one.
“If we can at 21, I think usually you’d have to look at the history of the draft, it’s probably hard to find a good shooter at 21,” Langdon said earlier today. “Usually, they don’t get there, but maybe we could add playmaking there. But I think for us, it’ll be who’s the best player there is what we’ll look at. It will be does this player fit this environment? Does this player fit our identity? How can that player help us? Maybe it’s not even next year but in the future, right? We’ve got players that are going to get expensive, and we’re going to have to have our picks hit and be able to help our team. So, maybe it’s not a player that helps us next year per se but can help us throughout the course of his career after that.”
As has been the case in the past, Langdon offered a pragmatic approach with that answer, one that keeps the long-term future of the franchise in perspective. After obtaining the top seed in the East last year, the Pistons are not far off from competing for a title, but Langdon is making an effort not to over-extend the squad’s resources in order to skip ahead in the development process as a team.
When it comes to adding an accomplished three-point threat such as Isaiah Evans, Cameron Carr or Christian Anderson in the draft, Langdon recognizes that teams across the NBA covet the ability to space the floor, so it’s a competitive resource to acquire during the offseason. As a result, Langdon is keeping an eye on the entire crop of incoming rookies as a whole and will be drafting with a best-player-available mentality.
”There’s probably a handful of those guys, but those guys are usually going early, especially with how important it is. When you talk to all the teams, they’re all trying to find shooting to continue to space the floor and give their best players an opportunity to operate, so it is a skill that the whole league is looking at, which it’s hard to get them at the number we’re at. I couldn’t tell you where we need to get to to get one, there’s a couple of them in the draft, but I think we have some coaches here who can help develop fringe shooters into better shooters, and so we’ll look at that too. There’s guards, there’s wings, there’s some bigs that I think we’ll have an opportunity to draft at 21.”
Given the Pistons only have 12 players under contract for next season, Langdon will do his best to add a prospect who can positively impact the franchise for years to come, but it’s unclear which position he’s targeting.
”We’ll be looking at everything,” Langdon reaffirmed.
The Pistons do not own a second round pick in the draft, so there’s a good chance that their 21st overall selection will mark their only action in the draft this year.
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