Tim Connelly, Zaccharie Risacher, and the NBA Combine | The Weekly Drive
The Minnesota Timberwolves are enemy number one to the Detroit Pistons, who still cannot interview Tim Connelly.
Good morning Pistons fans, and welcome to the Weekly Drive. The team still doesn’t have a President of Basketball Operations, trade talk continues to heat up, and the Minnesota Timberwolves may have ruined everything. Let’s get to it.
No Wolf Among Us
The Minnesota Timberwolves advanced to the Western Conference Finals last night, beating the defending champion Denver Nuggets in a hardwood classic. That game certainly stings for the Nuggets, but it mattered a lot to the Pistons as well. In advancing to the conference finals, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly is still unable to interview for the same role with the Pistons. That is a big bummer for Detroit, which is in dire need of a front-office savior.
So where do the Pistons go? Yahoo Sports reports that Trajan Langdon (New Orleans), Scott Perry (ESPN Analyst, former New York Knicks General Manager), Dennis Lindsey (Dallas), and John Hammond (Orlando) are still contenders for the role. But Connelly would have been an even better hire. Until the Pistons don’t hire Connelly, hope remains. But it isn’t looking good.
French Picking
Zaccharie Risacher, a potential NBA lottery pick out of the French basketball league LNB Elite, had himself a day this past weekend. The 6-foot-9 wing dropped 28 points on 11/16 shooting (5/9 from three-point land) in just 29 minutes.
Risacher likely won’t be there at the fifth pick for the Pistons, but if he is, it would behoove Detroit to sprint to the podium to take him. His shooting, length, and potential fit are tantalizing on a Pistons team that lacks…all of those things.
NBA Combine Recap
The NBA Combine was from May 12th to the 19th, and a few standouts may be of interest to the Pistons. There are several recap articles from reputable sources like Bleacher Report and the NBA themselves, so definitely check those out. Here is some other notes from the combine for prospects the Pistons will likely get to choose from next month.
Dalton Knecht had a great combine and would be a perfect fit for the Pistons
Donovan Clingan, the seven-footer from the National Champion Connecticut Huskies, showed off his three-point stroke - another skill that nobody on the Pistons possesses
Matas Buzelis, a tall playmaking point-forward, displayed his athleticism at the combine with a 38-inch vertical and sixth-best time in the agility drill
That’ll do it for this week’s Weekly Drive. Make sure to check out Palace of Pistons on social (linked below) and listen to last week’s podcast, where we talk about draft prospects and the NBA lottery as a whole. See you next week.
Mike