Pistons use video to test prospects’ hoops IQ

Chicago — Many of the prospects at the NBA Draft Combine had prepared for the typical questions team executives and scouts would ask them. There are the off-the-wall questions and the queries about math problems or philosophical perspectives.

The Pistons went in a different direction: basketball video.

Pistons president-coach Stan Van Gundy led most of the 20 interviews with prospects, along with general manager Jeff Bower and the rest of the front office staff. They showed the players game video and asked them to break it down, getting a sense of their basketball acumen, as well as just breaking the ice.

“There is no right or wrong answer; I just like to hear them talk about basketball and articulate what they see on the court,” Van Gundy said. “Most of them will go back to their rules in college about defensive rotations. I’m not worried about what it is, but more if guys have a pretty clear understanding of what they think should be done.”

He said there were maybe four or five clips for each player to break down, just as an early mental exercise to get them acclimated to the interview atmosphere and to get them verbalizing.

In almost every case, it worked well, also giving insight into their comfort level with talking about something they’ll be doing for the foreseeable future. Several prospects, including Gonzaga’s Zach Collins, Kentucky’s Bam Adebayo and Louisville’s Donovan Mitchell, quickly recalled the unique part of the interview process.

Collins said of all his interviews, only about four or five teams asked him to break down the plays, but he understood the value. And with the coaching staff available to answer questions as well, it might be a trend that spreads around the league in helping to get to know the players’ basketball IQs.

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“The one thing is it’s something that they’re very comfortable talking about and it’s good to get them in the session where they’re comfortable and talking and able to communicate what they’re already aware of and their understanding of the NBA game,” Bower said.

“It takes on a whole new different meaning when the head coach is able to sit there with them and go through it and get a feel and an explanation as well. “We don’t do it as a test; we do it as a way to communicate about basketball.”

Prepping for picks

The Pistons did their due diligence in interviewing about 20 draft prospects during the Combine week and will continue to set up individual workouts over the next few weeks, ahead of the June 22 draft.

They’ll likely have the 12th pick, though they have a 0.7-percent chance of getting the first pick. The assumption is that they won’t move up, which makes their job difficult in trying to assess which players they should be evaluating at the combine.

But from top to bottom, it looks to be a crop of players who can add to their talent pool.

“It’s going to be a good draft. The top of it has some very dynamic players, the middle has good players and there’s better depth into the second round,” Bower said.

“Everything is going to get pushed back a little so there are some good players who have a chance to go undrafted as well. This has been a terrific camp.”

The Pistons aren’t targeting one particular position in the draft, as they don’t have many open roster spots — or a specific area of improvement to focus on.

“It makes it harder. It certainly increases the pool because we’re not limited to one thing,” Bower said.

“We’re trying to have a handle on groups of guys we may be able to do something with.”

That could lead to the clichéd strategy of selecting the best player available, which could be at any of several positions, depending on how the picks before them go.

Last season, they hadn’t pinpointed Henry Ellenson as an option — partly because they didn’t think he’d be available at the 18th pick — but it shows the difficulty in trying to project which players will be around in the middle of the first round.

“It could be very easily (best player available) with the quality of the draft,” he said. “Assuming we’re at 12, there are some good players that wouldn’t necessarily be labeled as positions of need but the value and long-term potential may merit them to be the best pick for us.”

rod.beard@detroitnews.com

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