The Detroit Pistons had two wins Friday, April 10.
The first was a 118-100 win over the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center, one that brought them one win away from a 60-win season. The other one happened about a 10-hour drive north.
The New York Knicks’ 112-95 win over the Toronto Raptors had little impact on the Pistons’ playoff picture, with Detroit locked into the No. 1 overall seed and awaiting their first-round opponent from the results of the upcoming play-in tournament.
But the Raptors losing gave the Pistons a higher first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft than they would have gotten with their own, with Detroit now locked into the No. 21 overall pick.
Let’s break it down.
Pistons NBA draft pick 2026
The Pistons biggest 2026 trade deadline deal sent former first-round pick Jaden Ivey to the Chicago Bulls in a three-team deal that also involved the Minnesota Timberwolves. What the Pistons got from the Timberwolves in the deal was a first-round pick swap protected 1-19, meaning the Timberwolves would have to finish high enough in the regular-season standings for their pick to be swapped with Detroit’s.
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The Knicks’ win over the Raptors guaranteed the Timberwolves would finish no lower than the ninth-best record in the league. And with Minnesota’s win later Friday over the Houston Rockets, the Timberwolves, who already clinched a playoff spot in the Western Conference, have their first-round draft slot locked at 21 – meaning the Pistons get to swap their first-round pick with Minnesota’s.
The Pistons, who will finish with the third-best record in the NBA, have the No. 28 overall pick, meaning they will hop seven spots up. That could be high enough for the Pistons (59-22) to draft someone such as Duke guard Isaiah Evans, who The Ringer has the Pistons selecting in its latest mock draft and who ESPN has listed at No. 21 on its latest NBA draft big board.
More impressively, the conveyed pick swap now makes the Pistons look like the biggest winners from the three-team deadline deal. The Pistons gave up Ivey, who the Bulls waived in March after the guard made homophobic comments on an Instagram Live video, for Huerter, center Dario Šarić (who the Pistons waived soon after the trade) and the Minnesota pick swap.
And while it took some time for Huerter to establish himself in Detroit, and while the pick swap was never guaranteed to convey, both situations have materialized for a Pistons team that only gave up a player who is no longer in the league.
Though we have yet to see what the Pistons will do with their improved draft position, a trade that many questioned during the deadline is starting to look like a steal for president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pistons’ 2026 NBA Draft pick moves up thanks to Jaden Ivey trade
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
