Troy Weaver wasn’t as active at the trade deadline as some fans were hoping, but he did ship out both Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox while bringing James Wiseman to the Detroit Pistons.
This move will not make or break Weaver’s time in Detroit, as not much has changed. The Pistons were a bad team hoping for lottery luck and quality free agents before, and they still are.
But during the trade deadline, reports leaked that the Pistons planned on keeping Bojan Bogdanovic around and that they hoped to be “great next year.”
Greatness is probably a little too much to hope for for a team that is sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but the Pistons do need to make some kind of improvements next season or Troy Weaver’s seat could start to get hot. We’re not there yet, but next season was always the target for being competitive, so if we are counting losses as wins again next season, there will be rumbles about Weaver’s job.
He has somewhat staked that job on continued production of Bojan Bogdanovic as well as the upcoming offseason.
Detroit Pistons: Swapping out Saddiq Bey for Bojan Bogdanovic
Saddiq Bey losing his job to a guy who is a decade older was not something most fans would have predicted at the start of this season, but that is pretty much what happened.
Neither guy can defend much, which made it hard to keep the on the floor at the same time, so Weaver stuck with the more consistent and efficient Bogdanovic, who has long been one of the league’s best 3-point shooters.
And Weaver needs him to continue to be, as he has just traded out a promising forward for a guy who is about to turn 34-years-old. If Bogdanovic gets hurt next season or his production drops off, there is going to be a lot of finger pointing at Weaver, especially if Bey makes a leap for Atlanta.
It’s not like Weaver traded out an All-Star, but Bey was a popular player, who also happens to rarely miss games, so if age starts catching up with Bogdanovic there will be second guessing, especially since the Detroit Pistons could have gotten some assets for him at the deadline.
Detroit Pistons: The NBA Draft and free agency
Given Bogdanovic’s career so far, it’s likely that he’ll still be a productive player for the Detroit Pistons, but they still need plenty of help.
Detroit is now without a real small forward, though they have guys like Isaiah Livers and Hamidou Diallo who can man the position.
But without a true starting level small forward who can defend, this team is not going to improve much next season, even when they get Cade Cunningham back.
There are a ton of question marks around how this current roster fits together, as Weaver has been more concerned about winning transactions than putting tougher a cohesive team that makes sense.
That is fine while Detroit is still tanking, but next season, there has to be some semblance of a team, not just a bunch of guys who were high draft picks.
Weaver needs to nail the draft, whether he gets the top pick or not, and has to find some free agents and/or trades that bind this team together into a functional unit.
He can’t waste spots on Kevin Knox or Cory Joseph types, but needs to find guys we know can play, defend and complement the players already on the roster. Weaver has yet to build a real team in Detroit and this has to be the offseason when he starts trying by adding players who are good fits and can play.
But it’s also important that he doesn’t make the wrong signings.
Detroit Pistons: Troy Weaver has to avoid the wrong contracts
One of the hallmarks of the Detroit Pistons’ current decade plus of misery is that they gave the wrong guys contracts. There are loads of examples of this (most of them not by Weaver), and we’ve seen how giving a mediocre role player big money can hamper a franchise.
Weaver has done it himself, as he outbid his own team for the services of Marvin Bagley III, a transaction that looks even worse in retrospect and is probably his worst move to date.
Weaver has to decide which of the 2020 draft class he is going to offer an extension. He can’t overpay Killian Hayes or Isaiah Stewart, or offer James Wiseman a big deal without having seen that he can actually be a productive NBA player.
He can’t overpay Hamidou Diallo in free agency or keep around veterans who can’t get off the bench on the worst team in the league.
In other words, Weaver can’t be playing favorites this offseason by offering deals to guys who haven’t earned them just because they are “Weaver players.” This is arguably more important than who he does sign, as the wrong contracts could limit their flexibility and make it more difficult to build a winner.