The Detroit Pistons may have to wait until the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft to make their first selection, currently controlling only the 37th overall pick.
The Pistons probably aren’t going to find an instant starter that late in the draft, but after making the playoffs with a young core of players, the main focus will likely be adding veteran talent from college that could help the team right away.
One possible option for the Pistons if they stay put at No. 37 would be the SEC Player of the Year in big-man Johni Broome.
The 6-foot-9, 249-pound forward spent five years playing college basketball and he was among the best on the court everywhere he went.
Broome had a modest high school recruitment, receiving no offers from power-conference schools as the 471st-ranked recruit in his class by 247Sports.
Two years at Morehead State saw Broome quickly establish himself as a threat on both ends before moving to Auburn and having no trouble translating his game to the SEC.
He decided to spend a fifth season in college after an early exit in the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and at times was the best player in the country, averaging 18.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.1 blocks.
The Tigers were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament in large part thanks to Broome’s excellence and proceeded to make the Final Four before losing to eventual champion Florida.
Fans around Michigan may have learned a lot about Broome in the tournament as he had starring performances against the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans, combining for 47 points and 30 rebounds across the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight matchups.
Had it not been for freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, Broome likely would’ve been the national player of the year. Instead the Florida native was just a consensus All-American, SEC Player of the Year and Karl Malone Award winner (given to the nation’s top power forward).
All of his accolades and Broome is still projecting to be a second-round pick. Part of that is age — he’ll be 23 by the time the NBA season begins.
Scouts and analysts also have some concerns about how well all his skills translate, an over-reliance on his left hand and whether his defense is going to be up to NBA standards given he’s a bit undersized for his position.
But there’s still plenty to like about his game. He’s one of the best in the class at using leverage to his advantage. It’s what made him such an adept scorer through his college career.
Broome is tough, strong and embraces the physicality of the game while playing plenty underneath the rim as an elite rebounder.
He’s still finding consistency from the three-point line, after shooting just 27.8% last season. However, that’s a skill he can develop more with a shooting coach and — truthfully — going to the Pistons he wouldn’t be relied upon nearly as often as he was with Auburn to do just about everything.
That’s going to free him up to work on being more efficient and take his opportunities when they come rather than being expected to constantly create chances while being a key force in the paint.
The Pistons have a decent stable of bigs returning next season in Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart.
But after Stewart was held out of most of the Pistons’ playoff series with the New York Knicks due to an injury, it exposed the group as being just a bit too thin, even with the expanded efforts of Paul Reed late in the season.
Broome is by no means looking like a sure thing to thrive in the NBA, but he’s got a lot of good tools and could definitely play minutes right away in a room that is lacking a bit in depth.
That might just be the way to go for the Pistons if they see something in Broome.