The Detroit Pistons tumbled to No. 5 in the upcoming NBA Draft, and with it a lot of fans got awfully depressed awfully quickly. It is somewhat understandable considering most people had this upcoming draft pegged with a clear top 3 — Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith Jr. in some order.
But drafting fifth doesn’t necessarily mean the Pistons are picking through scraps, and history points to the fifth pick turning out just about as well as any other place in the top 5.
First, let’s dive into former Pistons drafted No. 5 overall. There aren’t any. That was easy. OK, well if the franchise’s past is not precedent then let’s take a look at who has actually gone No. 5 overall.
History of the No. 5 Pick in the NBA Draft
| Year | Player | Win Shares |
|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Win Shares |
| 1985 | Jon Koncak | 29.2 |
| 1986 | Kenny Walker | 17.9 |
| 1987 | Scottie Pippen | 125.1 |
| 1988 | Mitch Richmond | 79.3 |
| 1989 | J.R. Reid | 22.5 |
| 1990 | Kendall Gill | 47.8 |
| 1991 | Steve Smith | 83.7 |
| 1992 | LaPhonso Ellis | 32.8 |
| 1993 | Isaiah Rider | 22.8 |
| 1994 | Juwan Howard | 59.4 |
| 1995 | Kevin Garnett | 191.4 |
| 1996 | Ray Allen | 145.1 |
| 1997 | Tony Battie | 36.4 |
| 1998 | Vince Carter | 125.3 |
| 1999 | Jonathan Bender | 3.8 |
| 2000 | Mike Miller | 60.7 |
| 2001 | Jason Richardson | 59.1 |
| 2002 | Nikoloz Tskitishvili | -1.6 |
| 2003 | Dwyane Wade | 120.7 |
| 2004 | Devin Harris | 54.9 |
| 2005 | Raymond Felton | 40.2 |
| 2006 | Shelden Williams | 9.9 |
| 2007 | Jeff Green | 50.3 |
| 2008 | Kevin Love | 88.6 |
| 2009 | Ricky Rubio | 41.6 |
| 2010 | DeMarcus Cousins | 46.8 |
| 2011 | Jonas Valančiūnas | 67.4 |
| 2012 | Thomas Robinson | 4.6 |
| 2013 | Alex Len | 21.6 |
| 2014 | Dante Exum | 3.1 |
| 2015 | Mario Hezonja | 3.2 |
| 2016 | Kris Dunn | 3.9 |
| 2017 | De’Aaron Fox | 15.7 |
| 2018 | Trae Young | 26.3 |
| 2019 | Darius Garland | 6.2 |
| 2020 | Isaac Okoro | 5.1 |
| 2021 | Jalen Suggs | -1.6 |
There are some clear wins and plenty of misses. It’d be a runaway franchise win if you got one of the top 10 players drafted at fifth overall, with roughly 5 more with plenty left to prove and another handful who had promising careers derailed by injury. A 50% hit rate might seem like a huge risk, but in the world of an NBA Draft, it is just par for the course.
To dive even deeper, I went through every NBA Draft Lottery since the lotto began and compiled data on the median win shares by each draft slot as well as how many players had significant careers. We will define significant careers as split between those with 100+, 75+ and 50+ win shares.
It turns out that, historically speaking, picking fifth isn’t terribly different than drafting anywhere else in the top 5. And then there is a pretty significant dropoff.
The data shows you have a 13.5% of drafting someone that will amass roughly 100 career Win Shares for any of the picks 2-4. Think players like Grant HIll (99.9), Chris Bosh (106) or Manu Ginobili (106.4). You have a 20% chance of taking a player with 75+ Win Shares — plenty of players still in the Hall including Ben Wallace (93.5), Joe Dumars (86.2) and Isiah Thomas (80.7) in this tier.
Only 62 players are not current players have at least 75 Win Shares and aren’t in the Hall of Fame. Some will get in and haven’t yet (Drik Nowitzki (206.3), Pau Gasol (144.1) and Vince Carter (125.3). Some might never make it in, including Chauncey Billups who amassed 120.8 and definitely deserves entry … but I digress.
The median Win Shares for a player drafted in the top 5 hovers between 37.4 and 60.3 and then there is a steep decline. This is a sign that while the lottery is a crapshoot, you’ve got a pretty good chance of grabbing a very good player in the top 5.
In the 3-point era, 295 players have achieved the 50 Win Share threshold and 398 have hit 40.2 (the median total for the fifth overall pick). That puts you in the 87th percentile of NBA players.
All this is to say, it’s not about a lack of options, it is about the person making the pick, the organization developing the player, the player’s commitment to excellence, overall health and a whole lot of other factors we’ll just chalk up to luck.
If you say “In Weaver we Trust,” then there are no issues with picking fifth overall. There will be plenty of excellent players coming out of the draft, just as there are in every draft. And picking in the top 5 clearly shows an advantage and success rate that surpasses picks later in the lottery much less the rest of the draft.
Now time to put these Google Sheets away and start pulling up game film of Keegan Murray, Bennedict Mathurin, Jaden Ivey, Shaedon Sharpe, Tari Eason, Jeremy Sochan, Johnny Davis and Dyson Daniels.