After Allen Iverson appeared in the 2009 All-Star game as a member of the Detroit Pistons, the Motor City suffered a long drought until their next All-Star. After AI, the next appearance was made by Andre Drummond in 2016.
Since then, Drummond and Blake Griffin have made appearances in the glorified pickup game for the Pistons. However, Drummond is now gone and Griffin is suffering another major knee injury. In turn, Detroit is now in a complete rebuild, with third-year pro-Luke Kennard being the longest-tenured Piston.
The future isn't looking very bright in Detroit and it could get even more ugly moving forward.
That warrants some thinking:
Who will be the Pistons next all-star?
Looking at the Pistons young core, it's hard to imagine a real shot at all-stardom for any of them. However, there are a few, that if everything were to go right, stardom could be on the horizon. We're going to look at each of the Pistons' best chances at having representation at the All-Star game.
In fairness to this thought process, we're not going to include Griffin. I think it's universally agreed that if Griffin is healthy and at 100 percent, he's not only a surefire All-Star but arguably a superstar. We're going to operate under the belief that Griffin won't return the full health and therefore will not be capable of getting back to his peak form.
Operating under those circumstances, here are the legitimate candidates to be the Pistons next All-Star.
Derrick Rose
Rose has been the Pistons best player during this season and it's not that close. Having to operate on this team without Reggie Jackson and Griffin for the majority of the season, Rose was given the keys to the entire offense and isn't disappointing, turning in arguably his best season since winning MVP in 2011.
Rose is averaging (at the time of this writing) 18.1 points and 5.6 assists with a 55.5 true shooting percentage. The Pistons offense has been 2.6 points better with him on the court, the second-highest of any player who has played over 1,000 minutes for Detroit. It's quite obvious that Rose has seen a career-renaissance and has shown that he has plenty left in his former league-MVP tank.
As mentioned earlier, the Pistons have entered a complete rebuild. However, they've chosen Rose to lead this rebuild and their young prospects into next year at the very least. If Griffin doesn't return to the player we've all grown accustomed to, it's very likely that Rose will be operating under the same circumstances next season. Outside of Luke Kennard, the Pistons don't really have anyone who can create any offense for themselves. Don't be surprised if you see Rose put up big numbers on a young, bad Pistons team next season.
Helping the 32-year-old's chances even more, Rose has one of the biggest fanbases in sports, period. Rose finished fourth in fan voting for this season's All-Star game among all Eastern Conference guards, ahead of eventual All-Stars Ben Simmons and Kyle Lowry. Rose is also highly respected by his peers in the league, so it wouldn't be shocking if players were to vote him in if he's putting up big numbers for the Pistons next season.
After taking all of this into account, Rose has one of the highest chances of being the next player to represent Detroit in the All-Star game.
Luke Kennard
As mentioned earlier, Kennard is the only other Pistons player outside of Rose who can create his own offense efficiently. The 23-year-old was enjoying a breakout season before a knee injury sidelined him for the past 23 games. Kennard was averaging a career-highs across the board, putting up 15.6 points, 4.1 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game. The third-year player was also shooting 39.9 percent from deep on a career-high 6.5 attempts.
There's a chance that Kennard could've been the Pistons best player this season instead of Rose if he didn't suffer that knee injury. Previous issues of aggressiveness and assertiveness were no more, as Kennard was taking roughly four more shots per game on only a slightly higher usage rate. When Kennard was on the floor, the Pistons offensive rating was 109.2, second-highest of anyone who had played at least 900 minutes for the Pistons.
If Kennard were to take another leap offensively next season, and the Pistons wisely decide against trading him, it's possible Kennard could find himself in a situation like Bradley Beal in Washington; put up big numbers offensively on great efficiency and be considered for the All-Star game.
What's working against Kennard are three things:
First off, Kennard doesn't have a large fanbase, so he won't be getting the same type of support someone like Beal would get across the NBA landscape. The Pistons don't have a large fanbase themselves either, and even if you want to argue that the attendance data misrepresents Detroit's fanbase, not enough of those fans will care enough to vote for Kennard.
Second, Kennard isn't the best on defense. He's not D-Rose levels bad on defense, but he isn't a plus defender either.
Thirdly, the Pistons record is likely to be pretty poor. If Beal isn't getting in with his numbers on a bad Washington Wizards team, it's hard to imagine Kennard getting in on a bad Pistons team; no matter how great his numbers are.
So, while it's very possible Kennard could take another leap next season and become a legitimate number one option on offense, the Pistons record, fanbase, and his own defense would likely keep him out.
Future Acquisition
This is sad.
Yes, I could've gone with Bruce Brown or Sekou Doumbouya, the Pistons 15th pick in last year's draft. Heck, I could've even gone with Christian Wood.
But, let's just be honest at this point. It's hard to imagine any of these players being All-Stars for Detroit, at the very least not any time soon.
The most likely player to next represent Detroit in an All-Star game is a future acquisition the team has yet to make. Whether that's this year's upcoming draft pick (where the Pistons figure to pick in the top-6), a future free-agent signing, or acquiring a player through a trade (a la Griffin), this will be the Pistons best chance at getting an all-star.
There is nothing else that can completely encapsulate how dark the Pistons' future looks than this reality right here. Most teams in this predicament have one of the following: a young core or player with serious promise, a load of potential assets, or loads of cap room. Detroit doesn't have either of the first two possibilities, and it's been rumored that the front office could potentially use up all their cap space this off-season to foolishly try and compete next season.
I guess the best way to answer the question, “Who'll be the Detroit Pistons next all-star” would be this:
No one knows.
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