The Pistons picked 23-year old small forward Kyle Singler out of Duke with the 33rd overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Singler played in 37 games for Duke last year and he averaged 34.8 minutes, 16.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Singler played in 148 games in his four years in college and he averaged 33.0 minutes, 16.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Singler is a pretty polished player who was projected to be picked near the end of the first round. So this was a good value pick for the Pistons as Singler should be able to help them off the bench starting in 2011-12.

UPDATE: (11/29/2011) - Kyle Singler has decided to play out the rest of this season with Real Madrid. The Pistons will retain his rights.

The Detroit Pistons took 18-year old point guard Brandon Knight with the 8th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. The Pistons had to be ecstatic to see Knight sitting there for them with the 8th pick. He is 6′3″, 185 pounds so he is big enough to handle the job physically. I would be shocked if Knight isn’t the starting point guard on Opening Night of the 2011-12 NBA season for the Pistons. Knight played in 38 games in his only year with Kentucky and he averaged 35.9 minutes, 17.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. Knight will make the rest of the team better when he’s running the floor. This was an outstanding pick for the Pistons.

The Pistons have six free agents (3 restricted and 3 unrestricted) coming into this off-season. I look for the Pistons to try to retain all three of their restricted free agents as they are all young players. PG Rodney Stuckey, PF Jonas Jerebko and SF DaJuan Summers are all young enough to be key parts in the Pistons’ rebuilding project. Tayshaun Prince has been a fixture in Detroit for a long time but he’s just not worth the money he’s going to get in free agency, so the Pistons should let him go. SG Tracy McGrady had his moments when he played well last year but the Pistons should just move on from him and let a younger player handle his minutes. PF Chris Wilcox played really well at the end of last year, so maybe the Pistons will try to bring him back as a backup big.

26-year old “power” forward Charlie Villanueva has been suspended for 5 games by the NBA after his altercation with Ryan Hollins of the Cavaliers the other night. Villanueva served the first game of his suspension last night against the Sixers and he will miss the first four games of the 2011-12 season. Villanueva finally showed some heart in the game in which he was suspended in as he is one of the softest 6′11″, 240 pound players on the planet. He played in 76 games (11 starts) for the Pistons this year and he averaged 21.9 minutes, 11.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. Villanueva has now played in 154 games (27 starts) in his first two years with the Pistons and he has averaged 22.8 minutes, 11.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. Villanueva flat out stinks as his signing was one of the biggest mistakes that Pistons’ GM Joe Dumars has ever made.

In last night’s pre-season opener in Miami the Pistons had two players get hurt seriously. 2nd year power forward Jonas Jerebko suffered a torn right ACL which will likely cost him the whole season and rookie shooting guard Terrico White broke one of his feet. Both of them are set for sugery this Friday. Jerebko was a find for the Pistons last season. He played in 80 games (73 starts) for the Pistons as a rookie last year and he averaged 27.9 minutes, 9.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game. The Pistons hope that either Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell or rookie Greg Monroe will step up to replace Jerebko in the starting lineup.