Detroit Pistons: Top 5 most ‘Trust Troy’ moves of the off-season

4. The Yo-Yoing of Deividas Sirvydis

Pistons GM Troy Weaver’s handling of Deividas Sirvydis has simply been strange.

The Pistons gave up three second-round draft picks to move up to the 37th spot in the 2019 draft to take him. This was before Weaver arrived, as Senior Advisor Ed Stefanski was in charge at that point.

However, Weaver was the GM when Sirvydis came over at the start of last season, was given a roster spot and signed to a four-year contract, with the first two guaranteed.

Normally, Sirvydis would have been sent to play a lot with the Grand Rapids Drive in the G-League but, with the pandemic, the Drive never had a season. Sirvydis basically sat on the bench until the last few games of the season, when he showed some promise.

Now, Weaver had to know know there was not much of a chance of a G-League season (eventually some teams played in a bubble in Orlando for a month, the Drive did not participate), so when he inked Sirvydis, he knew that it would probably be a year of sitting and learning with the big club.

Then came this summer’s moves.

First, the Pistons released Sirvydis, eating the $1.5 million he is owed for 2021-22 season.

Secondly, they then had Sirvydis play on Detroit’s summer league team. He did not do that well, but what if he had? Would Weaver resign a player you just cut? How bad would that look? It seemed to be pointless.

Like Doumbouya, Sirvydis is young (21) and the Pistons invested some heavy capital to bring him here (But, like Sekou, before Weaver arrived). Yet, he is being shown the door, costing the Pistons over a million dollars just to get him off the roster.

What happens to Sirvydis will also be watched by Pistons fans,

This is definitely a ‘Trust in Troy’ moment.

3. Resigning Rodney McGruder

When the news came out that the Detroit Pistons were bringing back guard Rodney McGruder, most fans had the same reaction: Why?

Now, if it was just to throw it in the face of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who said publicly McGruder would not be in the league next season, following a Warriors-Pistons game, that might be a better reason than most could come up with.

It was nothing personal. According to all reports, McGruder is a great guy and very positive locker room influence. But he never played.

McGruder saw action in 16 games, starting twice. He usually played only due to injuries to the other guards. Sometimes he was a point guard, sometimes a two-guard. Coach Dwane Casey liked his versatility. When McGruder did get on the court, he was actually pretty good, but those times were rare.

Casey did not like McGruder enough to play him a lot. We are not talking about sitting on the bench of the Utah Jazz, a team winning lots of games and hoping to make a deep playoff run. McGruder could not find playing time on a 20-52 team going nowhere.

Detroit did decline his option for next season, making him an unrestricted free agent. But they came back and signed him to a one-year deal at the veterans minimum, the lowest salary they could give him.

With the drafting of Cade Cunningham, there is even less chance of McGruder getting to play this year. Honestly, except for the guaranteed money, one wonders why McGruder would even want to return to Detroit. The guy started a bunch of games with Miami, until coming here, he was used to seeing time.

The fact, at the time, the Pistons were facing a roster logjam, made the signing even more of a head-scratcher. If McGruder is not brought back, does that leave room to keep Doumbouya? We will never know.

Definitely a ‘Trust in Troy’ moment.