DETROIT >> For the first time in nearly a decade, the offseason plans of the Detroit Pistons do not center around the NBA Draft.

The Pistons made significant progress during the regular season, which resulted in them losing their first-round pick for the 2025 NBA Draft. The pick will be transferred to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of a trade that brought Isaiah Stewart to Detroit in November 2020.

Unless there is a trade between now and the start of the draft on June 25, the Pistons’ only selection will be No. 37 in the second round. Having a top-10 pick on Day 2 of the draft normally gives a team a good chance to add a gem to its roster.

However, Trajan Langdon, Detroit’s president of basketball operations, illustrated how college NIL deals might influence the Pistons’ draft strategy and the significance of second-round picks.

“With all the money that’s being thrown around in NIL, less players are putting their names in,” Langdon said. “These NIL packages are starting to get up to three to four to five to six million dollars. These guys are not going to put their name in to be the 25th pick or even the 18th pick. They are going to go back to school in hopes of being a lottery pick next year.

“With that pool of players decreasing, it decreases the odds of the level of player we get at No. 37, just off pure mathematics.”

NIL deals enable lower-ranked draft prospects to remain in college for an additional year when it is financially beneficial.

Most players can withdraw from the draft to pursue better contracts as student-athletes, instead of signing less favorable deals as potential second-round picks.

A week after their season ended at the hands of the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs, Langdon revealed that the Pistons do not have a specific plan for the draft.

However, he mentioned that they would consider a trade to move up if a player is appealing during their pre-draft evaluations.

The Pistons will begin preparing for the draft with the NBA Combine, which will be in Chicago from May 11-18. In Langdon’s first draft in charge of the Pistons, Detroit selected Bobi Klintman with the No. 37 pick in the second round in 2024.

Klintman’s selection came a day after the Pistons took Ron Holland II with their top overall selection at pick No. 5.