Pistons sign former Oregon forward Louis King to a two-way contract

The Pistons have signed former Oregon forward Louis King to a two-way contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic

King was a player that the Pistons brought in for a pre-draft workout and was somebody I thought they could target in the second round. It is surprising that the Pistons were able to get him as an undrafted free agent, as the former 5-star recruit was supposed to be drafted.

King put up some decent numbers in college, especially for a freshman. He averaged 13.5 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists on a shooting slashline of 44/39/79. King is another bigger wing at 6’9 and 205 pounds, which has been the trend for the Pistons front office during this draft process.

King is not NBA-ready (obviously because he didn’t get drafted), but he is going to be a project with some solid physical tools to work with. He looked lost out on the court a lot of the time at Oregon which is why he fell so much in the draft. It will be up to Dwane Casey, and mainly the staff in Grand Rapids to tap into King’s potential that made him a highly-touted high school recruit.

King joins second round pick Jordan Bone as one of the other two-way contracts the Pistons are allowed to have on their roster. It is nice to see the Pistons using their two-way contracts on developmental players rather than older players like Dwight Buycks and Kalen Lucas. Obviously the appeal of players like that is because they can step in if somebody gets hurt and play, but if you are relying on a two-way player for any important minutes during the season things are most likely not going well with your season. Might as well use these contracts as a way to get priority on undrafted free agents and get guys that you can develop.

Also as an aside, the Pistons are going to have a stacked Summer League team. They have already committed to Khyri Thomas, Svi Mykhailiuk, Bruce Brown, Sekou Doumbouya, and Jordan Bone playing in the Summer League. They are also reportedly going to bring over second round pick Deividas Sirvydis. They will also have King and undrafted free agents Bennie Boatwright and Matt McQuaid. Summer League will start on July 5 when the Pistons take on Croatia.