Lottery Sub-Plot: Pistons lose pick, Charlotte at #9

[PhoSita]

The Pistons entered the night with an 82% chance to keep their pick, only to see it fall to #9, meaning it gets taken by Charlotte thanks to the Ben Gordon salary dump which made it possible for the Pistons to overspend on mediocre free agents again (which is what saddled them with Gordon in the first place).

Terrible night for Pistons fans, even if that #8 pick may not have yielded a great player.

A nice little victory for Charlotte, though.  The first year out of the last few that they don't tank, they end up getting a top 10 pick anyhow.  Solid chance the guy they take is better than Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Cody Zeller. 

It's a strange world.

[BigAlTheFuture]

Wow, good for Charlotte. I like their team.

[Al91]

Such a get for Charlotte. If it turns out to be a good pick, or at least traded in a package for someone good, I feel like it could erase some of the ire that the organization has drawn in the past three years for the poor picks a la Biyombo and Zeller. Not bad players entirely, but not exactly what fans were hoping for with Top 10 picks.

Note: Of course, if I remember correctly Biyombo was first selected by SAC and then the rights were traded to Charlotte.

[TripleThreat]

It's only bad for Detroit if they have a better season next year (which is normally a good thing anyways). Say they would have ended up with the #8 pick this year and ended up having a top 3 pick next year, they would have lost that pick to Charlotte.

EDIT: Their pick was Top 8 protected this year, Top 1 protected in 2015 and unprotected in 2016 in case anybody was wondering.