The National Basketball Association's (NBA) Draft Lottery was Tuesday night.  And even though the Detroit Pistons had the best odds (at 14%) to win the Lottery and pick first, the Pistons lost out and will pick fifth in the June 22nd NBA Draft.

The San Antonio Spurs won the Lottery and will get the first pick, where they are likely to select French prodigy Victor Wembanyama.  He's listed as a 7-2 center, but really is a point guard.

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The Charlotte Hornets will pick 2nd, the Portland Trail Blazers select third, and the Houston Rockets will pick fourth before Detroit makes their pick.

Other top players are point guard Scoot Johnson, who played this season in the G-League, and Alabama freshman forward Brandon Miller.  Both will likely be gone by the time the Pistons pick at #5.  So what do they do?  They have two options...

TAKE THE BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE

Team president Troy Weaver (pictured above left with Pistons owner Tom Gores) could take the simple route and take the best player still on the board.  The Pistons have needs everywhere, so they could go frontcourt or backcourt with the fifth pick.  They have lots of options if they decide to keep the pick.

TRADE DOWN

If Weaver doesn't like who's available at 5, he could find a willing trade partner looking to move up in the Draft and send the pick to them in exchange for future draft choices.  Weaver could start stockpiling picks just like the Oklahoma City Thunder have done in recent years, and are just now seeing positive results from that strategy.

Troy could then use those picks to make trades to get more established NBA players that can help the team more immediately than most draft picks can.

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The Pistons do have the first pick in the second round (pick #31 overall).  So it's almost like they have two first-round picks.  But most second-round picks don't get fully guaranteed money, so it's even more of a crapshoot than in the first round.

AT THE END OF THE DAY, DOES IT REALLY MATTER (LIKE THE TITLE ASKS)?

Judging by the way the Pistons have drafted and played in recent years, no, it doesn't.  We still don't know if Cade Cunningham will be as good as advertised (first overall pick two years ago) because of injuries.  The jury is still out on Killian Hayes and Isaiah Stewart (even though some in the Detroit media love them).  And can last year's first-round picks, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, improve on the promise of their rookie year?  We'll see.

We'll also see.who Weaver hires as the new head coach to replace Dwane Casey.  Whoever it is must get the team to play better defense and help the team figure out a way to close out games better.  These Detroit Pistons are the worst 4th quarter team I have ever seen in the NBA and it's not even close who's second.

But these are the Detroit Pistons, do you even care in the first place?

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