Is Marcus Sasser A Hidden Gem On The Detroit Pistons Roster?

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski

The Detroit Pistons have one of the best young cores in the NBA entering the 2025-2026 season, a complete 180 from where those outside Detroit felt about this team after a franchise-worst 14-win season in 2023-2024. Led by Cade Cunningham, the core of Ausar Thompson, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, Ron Holland, and Isaiah Stewart are expected to make a jump into the top-five of the East next season.

All six of these players were drafted in the first round of four of the last five NBA Drafts. A few first-round picks have been shipped out after not working out, such as Saddiq Bey and Killian Hayes. There is one more first-round pick left on this roster that has fallen by the wayside for the Pistons:

Marcus Sasser.

The 25th pick in the 2023 NBA draft, Sasser was the last selection of Troy Weaver before his dismissal in the 2024 offseason, when Weaver traded the 31st pick and two future second-round picks to the Boston Celtics to select him out of Houston.

Sasser was an older prospect in the 2023 Draft, having played four seasons at Houston, where he averaged 17.0 points on 40 percent shooting from beyond the arc over the last two years of his collegiate career. Heading into the draft, Sasser drew comparisons to Fred VanVleet and DeAnthony Melton, due to his shooting and scoring ability, and with projections to be a solid defender despite the 6’2” frame.

Two years after Detroit drafted him, Sasser still doesn’t look to have a clear pathway to real minutes for the Pistons despite turning 25 before this season starts (almost a full year older than Stewart, who was drafted three years before him)

Is this due to Sasser just not being an NBA player? Does he lack the skills to have a career in this league, and with being an older prospect, is the potential to develop those skills unlikely? Not really. Sasser is a highly skilled player, but he has some apparent faults that prevent him from contributing to just any roster construction in the league.