Ebuka Okorie Was The Draft's Biggest Riser And Detroit Traded Up To No. 17 To Take Him
The Detroit Pistons traded three second-round picks to move up four spots from No. 21 to No. 17 in the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday night, selecting Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie, a 19-year-old, 6-foot-2 scoring guard who averaged 23.2 points per game in his lone college season and was the most dramatic pre-draft riser in the entire class.
Okorie finished tied for sixth in the nation in scoring at Stanford, shooting 47 percent from the field, 35 percent from three and averaging 1.6 steals per game in over 35 minutes per contest.
He was barely a first-round projection at the end of the college season.
By the time the draft arrived, the Pistons were willing to give up multiple future picks to move up and take him.
The trade required a brief sequence of back-to-back swaps.
The Memphis Grizzlies had previously moved back one spot from No. 16 to No. 17 in a deal with Oklahoma City.
They then traded No. 17 to Detroit for No. 21 and three second-rounders, using the 21st pick on Karim Lopez.
Okorie joins a Pistons core built around Cade Cunningham.
At 6-foot-1 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, scouts compare his ability to generate rim pressure to Tyrese Maxey or Kyrie Irving, guards whose quickness makes them nearly impossible to stay in front of.
His noted weaknesses are his size, his three-point shooting reliability and his secondary playmaking volume. His noted strengths are everything else.
"I'm just a very selfless person," Okorie told Andscape before the draft. "I'm very adaptable, I'm willing to sacrifice, do whatever it is for us to win."
