AUBURN HILLS – By now you know that Sekou Doumbouya was the youngest player taken in the 2019 NBA draft. If he’d been born nine days later – on Jan. 1, 2001 instead of Dec. 23, 2000 – he would have had to delay his entry to the NBA until the 2020 draft.

Here’s the kicker: He’s also younger than 16 players projected by ESPN.com to be first-round picks in that draft. International players must turn 18 in the calendar year of the draft; Americans must be one year removed from their high school class graduation. So most Americans in next year’s draft will be older than Doumbouya.

Which sets up the possibility that if the Pistons draft one of those “older” rookies next season, Doumbouya will be asking someone his elder to fetch him donuts in the 2020-21 season.

Until then, what can the Pistons expect from Doumbouya as a rookie?

Well, Ed Stefanski said before the draft that he wasn’t anticipating anyone the Pistons grabbed with the 15th pick to crack the rotation in his first season. Not for a team coming off a playoff berth and heading into year two under Dwane Casey. Not for a roster that Stefanski will have another crack at tailoring to Casey’s liking – even if the major tools to get that accomplished won’t come available to him until next summer.

But Stefanski also wasn’t anticipating Doumbouya being on the board when the Pistons went on the clock.

So he’s coming around to the idea that, yes, the Pistons might well get some mileage out of their 2019 first-round pick in 2019-20. Probably more the ’20 portion of the schedule, but that’s the most important half, isn’t it?

There are a lot of hurdles Doumbouya must clear before that can happen. Start with the fact he’ll be 18 in a decidedly man’s world. He’ll be living in a country that doesn’t do bilingual very well and while he can get by in English, he’s obviously more comfortable communicating in French. He’ll be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean from family and the only home he’s ever really known, keeping in mind Doumbouya was 1 when he moved with his mother and siblings from his native Guinea.

On the other hand, he’s got a head start on a few of those hurdles. He’s been immersed in a man’s world since he was 15, playing professionally in France’s second division and living apart from family for two seasons and its top division last season. He’s lived on his own. He’d have been a high school senior last season had he grown up in America – preparing to go to Duke or Kentucky, probably – but was, instead, jostling with men a decade older for rebounds.

Now, none of those players were LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard, and thus the learning curve ahead of him.

But a word about learning curves as they apply to the eerily gifted: Doumbouya will come to Summer League a few months younger than Andre Drummond was seven years ago, about a month shy of his 19th birthday. In his first Summer League game, Drummond – though showing flashes of what he would become – was decidedly outplayed by Kyle O’Quinn, a physically mature 22-year-old drafted 40 spots later. No matter. Steve Clifford, then between jobs, was asked by then-Pistons coach Lawrence Frank to observe Pistons practices before Summer League play and give his impressions of players.

Greg Monroe, a two-year NBA starter, participated in those practices. Brandon Knight, a year after being a lottery pick, did so, as well. Kyle Singler, after four years as a Duke starter and one in Spain, the closest thing to the NBA outside of the NBA itself, was there. Khris Middleton, now an NBA All-Star about to sign a max deal, was a rookie after three seasons at Texas A&M.

It wasn’t a roster full of undrafted free agents and retreads, in other words.

And Clifford told Frank after a handful of practices that his best player was Andre Drummond.

Which is another way of saying that talent usually finds a way to bubble to the surface.

Doumboya played in one of Europe’s well-respected leagues and even if the numbers didn’t pop, his talent did. He was universally viewed as a lottery pick and widely seen as a top-10 talent in this draft.

The Pistons are going to cover their bases so they go to training camp with the luxury of putting in Doumbouya in a position to force their hands. They’ll have Drummond and Blake Griffin poised to chew up about two-thirds of their 96 frontcourt minutes, they’ll surely sign a backup big man capable of playing 15 or 20 minutes a night and they’ll expect a step up from Thon Maker to provide support at both center and power forward.

For the increasing instances of small-ball lineups, they’ll have Tony Snell to play power forward and maybe Svi Mykhailiuk can put himself in position to challenge for that role, too, in addition to being a part of the puzzle at small forward, where Doumbouya also conceivably fits.

But if Doumbouya proves a quick study – something Pistons coaches will get their first insight into next week when Summer League practices commence – he’ll have a shot at winning any role from Griffin’s primary backup on down. The player Doumbouya is most often compared to, Toronto’s Pascal Siakam, wasn’t counted on to provide any immediate help to the 2016-17 Raptors, either – and he wound up starting 38 games. He came to the NBA nearly four full years older than Doumbouya will be when the season starts, but Doumbouya isn’t that far behind him physically.

We’re saying there’s a chance that Doumbouya winds up contributing more – potentially far more – than Stefanski ever believed would be possible from the 15th pick.