Why don’t the Detroit Pistons have a first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 25, in Brooklyn, New York?
It’s a long story that dates to the 2020 draft, the first under then-Pistons general manager Troy Weaver.
Luckily for the Pistons, the roller coaster ride of “will they or won’t they convey their first-round pick” is over.
The Pistons now control all of their future first-round draft picks and can trade up to four plus three swaps.
Here’s the backstory on their 2025 first-round draft pick.
Why don’t the Pistons have a first round pick in 2025 draft?
One of Weaver’s first moves was to acquire another first-round pick, which he obtained about an hour before the draft from the Houston Rockets in exchange for a heavily protected future first-round pick. Weaver then drafted power forward/center Isaiah Stewart with the pick. (Stewart has become a Pistons mainstay and fan favorite.)
The pick was protected through 2027, meaning the Pistons had little to no flexibility to trade future first-round draft capital until this year, when the pick owed was only protected for the top-13 selections.
With Weaver fired after the 2023-24 season following a franchise-worst 14-68 mark, the Pistons went 44-38 in 2024-25 to earn the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. That meant their first-round pick, which landed at No. 17 overall, was guaranteed to finally be transferred.
Who owns the Pistons first round pick in 2025 NBA Draft?
The Minnesota Timberwolves acquired the Pistons’ first-round pick in September 2024 via the Karl-Anthony Towns trade with the New York Knicks.
The Knicks had acquired it from Oklahoma City in exchange for the draft rights to Ousmane Dieng, the No. 11 pick, at the 2022 draft.
The Thunder had gotten it from Houston in 2021 for the draft rights to center Alperen Sengun.
The Pistons do own the 37th overall pick in the 2025 draft on Thursday, June 26 — their lone selection in this year’s draft. Their own second-rounder at No. 47 overall is owned by the Milwaukee Bucks.
This is the Pistons’ first draft without a first-round pick since 2018, which they dealt in January 2018 to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Blake Griffin trade. (The Clippers used it to select former Michigan State standout Miles Bridges at No. 12 overall, and traded him for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was taken 11th by the Charlotte Hornets.)
[ MUST WATCH: Make “The Pistons Pulse” your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]
Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Detroit Pistons don’t have first round pick in NBA draft 2025
