AUBURN HILLS -- The Detroit Pistons were so certain Henry Ellenson would be off the board before their first-round pick in the NBA draft that Stan Van Gundy barely scouted him at all.

Van Gundy said before the draft that there were 11 prospects who appeared out of the Pistons' reach at No. 18 overall, so he just skimmed them and relied on his front office and scouts on the others.

Ellenson was one of those 11.

"I watched two games, but quickly, just so I knew who he was. I didn't even take notes, to be quite honest," Van Gundy said.

But when the power forward -- who the Pistons had 10th on their big board, according to Van Gundy -- was bypassed by 17 teams, Detroit pounced.

"There were still some guys on the board we liked as guards," Van Gundy said. "But we just had this guy -- he was 10th on our board. That's exactly where he fit in with us. When you're picking 18 and get 10. ..."

Ellenson, in a televised interview on ESPN after he was selected, said it was "long waiting" to hear his name called.

"I'm like, man, am I even going to get picked? Just dying sitting there," he said. "But just finally getting picked, just emotions just ran through me, just all this hard work all the time. My family sacrificed, and now hearing my name called, it meant a whole lot."

The Pistons still have the No. 49 overall pick in the second round and Van Gundy said selecting Ellenson will directly affect it. Detroit will not take another power forward and probably not another big man at all in the second round, he said.

Van Gundy said before the draft that he did not expect even the Pistons' first-round pick to be a contributing rotation player in 2016-17.

Ellenson led him to hedge that assessment a bit.

"I think he's a guy that has a chance to get on the floor," Van Gundy said. "Now is he a guy in your top eight? I don't know. It's too early. We'll start the process with him and see how it goes. I think we'll be in a position where he's good enough to maybe get on the floor but we're in a position that he doesn't have to. We're not going to rush him. If he needs more time, that's fine."

Ellenson gives the Pistons something they needed, size and depth at power forward.

Only Tobias Harris is on a guaranteed contract at that position. With the Pistons seeking a power forward in free agency, drafting Ellenson probably ends Cameron Bairstow's time with the team before the player, acquired in trade last week, played a game in Detroit.

Ellenson grew up in a basketball family in Wisconsin. He was a point guard as a youngster.

At Marquette, he was the focal point of a team that slipped off the NCAA bubble late in the season.

"You can definitely see, for a big guy, he can face and put it on the floor, and make passes off the dribble, and score," Van Gundy said. "That's really what he is, a face-up guy. He's got a little bit in the low post, but even his post game is more catch, face, shoot it, put it on the floor. But he's very skilled in that way.

"And he did have to play a huge role. You're talking about a freshman in a major conference (Big East) averaging 17 and almost 10. That's really, really hard to do. As a freshman, there's a handful of guys that do that. That's great production."

Several twists ahead of the Pistons led to Ellenson's availability.

Most notable were a group of international players exceeding projections (Georgios Papagiannis No. 13, Juan Hernangomez No. 15, Guerschon Yabusele No. 16), and prep-to-pros player Thon Maker going at No. 10.

"I'm going to say the first 12 or 13, we had two guys already gone who were in the 30s on our board," Van Gundy said. "And I'm going to guess a lot of other teams were like that, too."

Ellenson, 19, has a good mid-range game and Van Gundy said he expects the player to develop NBA 3-point range.

"I do think he has a chance to come along a little quicker than some of the other guys we looked at," Van Gundy said.

The Pistons coach just didn't expect him to be there.

"We're really excited. It just unfolded a lot differently than we thought it would," he said.

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