The Pistons brought 57 players to Auburn Hills for predraft workouts and wound up taking two of them last week, Stanley Johnson and Darrun Hilliard. Both players reported back to their college coaches that their Detroit visit stood out, that they felt a strong connection to the Pistons staff and that they hoped the draft would deposit them in Detroit.
Chances are a few of the 55 others who weren’t drafted by the Pistons also came away with a strong favorable impression of the enterprise Stan Van Gundy has put together in his 13 months on the job.