The 2026 NBA Draft is less than a week away. The Detroit Pistons have the 21st pick. The Pistons need shooting. Teams can never have enough shooters.
If they keep the pick, there are any number of shooters that would be reasonable to grab, including (but not limited to): Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz, Baylor’s Cameron Carr, Santa Clara’s Allen Graves, Duke’s Isaiah Evans.
But did you just watch the NBA Finals?
The New York Knicks closed out the San Antonio Spurs in five games, winning the clincher, 94-90. That’s a throwback score. Maybe not the high-60s uglyfests we saw in the early 2000s – sorry, “Goin’ to Work” Pistons – but it’s a number that backs up the style of play taking hold in the league at the moment.
The ratings the Knicks-Spurs just posted are the best in a generation and a half, basically dating back to the days of Michael Jordan. Clearly, New York City and Victor Wembanyama drove the appeal. But the playoffs’ ratings were up across the board, just as they were a year ago, as well before the Finals.
There are several reasons, and we can debate which are the most important. But it’s no coincidence that, as defense has returned the past few postseasons, so have viewers.
So, sure, shooting. No one is arguing that the Pistons don’t need it. And maybe one of the shooters listed above would fit nicely in red, white and blue. Our own Omari Sankofa II predicted the Pistons would land Graves. And why not? He has size, a handle, a stroke, defensive playmaking and a lotta room to grow – he is only 19.
Yaxel Lendeborg, meanwhile, will be 24 in September, which might make NBA front offices guiding young rosters nervous about aligning timelines. Lendeborg, the do-everything “point forward” who led Michigan basketball to the national title in April, lines up nicely with the Pistons’ young core, however. Cade Cunningham will be 25 in September.
Lendeborg can also shoot (37.2% on 3s). Not like Graves at 41.3% (on a small sample of 38-for-92), but Lendeborg is stronger, a better defender − a more versatile defender − and is a patient attacker of the rim who showed an uncanny sense of when to launch during his 2026 NCAA Tournament run.
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He will also almost certainly not be available at No. 21.
So, the Pistons would have to trade for him, which recent reports suggested they are open to doing. Lendeborg, assuming he brings the same willingness to learn and improve that he did when he transferred from UAB to U-M, would help the Pistons immediately.
But then so would Lendeborg’s teammate, Morez Johnson Jr. − who is younger, more athletic, a better interior defender and also moves his feet well on the perimeter defensively. He is not as versatile as Lendeborg, nor as polished, and he is certainly not an equivalent ball-handler and shooter.
Drafting for potential
And yet Johnson, 20, has a higher ceiling.
He’d also be an intriguing replacement for Isaiah Stewart, if the Pistons need to include him in a trade to move up in the draft (unlikely) or as they seek to find more talent at the two or three. (Moving up would likely cost the Pistons this year’s pick and a future first-rounder.)
But if Johnson continues to improve his shooting? The way he did at U-M?
He could replace free agent Tobias Harris and play next to Jalen Duren. That would be a gamble, of course, betting on an uptick in shooting: Johnson shot 78.2% from the foul line at U-M in a decent sample size − free throws are a solid indicator that a shooting touch is there.
In that way, Lendeborg is the easier and tidier fit in Detroit, or at least he would be, at first. But Johnson plays with the kind of zeal and physicality that we just watched in the NBA Finals. He’s got a little OG Anunoby − another athletic frontline tweener from the Big Ten (Indiana) who came out with questions about his shooting.
And if the Pistons are going to take a swing in the draft, shouldn’t it be for someone that doubles down on the identity they are finally starting to embrace?
Yes.
They can find known shooting and ball-handling elsewhere, and take a chance on a future menace if given the opportunity.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Yaxel Lendeborg would be nice Pistons pick. His teammate might be nicer
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
