Bennedict Mathurin doesn’t seem to be sitting at the top of anybody’s list. He’s not the best scorer in the draft class, the most NBA ready, the most polished, the top defender or the most athletic. When you float the name of Mathurin as a potential pick at No. 5 for the Detroit Pistons, the universal reaction seems to be, “yeah, sure.”
There is this sense that selecting Mathurin means you’re not willing to take the home run swing like you would be if you selected mystery man Shaedon Sharpe. Picking Mathurin also seems to offend those who salivate over Jaden Ivey’s athleticism, and hitching your wagon to Bennedict will get a tsk tsk from those armed with the analytics that showcase just how potent a force Keegan Murray was at Iowa.