3 disastrous mistakes the Detroit Pistons must avoid this summer

The Detroit Pistons are entering the most important offseason of Troy Weaver’s tenure as General Manager.

He has torn down the roster and started to build it back up with foundational young talent in Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, but four years of tanking is enough, and it is time to this team to start to compete.

No one is expecting the Pistons to win the title next season, but they at least need to make the kind of leap that teams like Orlando and OKC made to get within shouting distance of the play-in tournament or to actually make it.

If Weaver fails to build a coherent roster that looks like it is on its way to being a sustainable winner, his seat will start to get hot, though most fans are still happy with his work so far.

He has a tall task in front of him this offseason and has to avoid the types of mistakes that could set the rebuild back.

3 disastrous mistakes the Detroit Pistons must avoid this summer

#1: Hiring the wrong coach

As we saw in the late Joe Dumars era, a constant carousel of coaches is not the way to build a sustained winner. The Pistons have had Dwane Casey for the last five years, so there has been continuity, even if the team wasn’t winning.

This is Troy Weaver’s first chance to get “his guy” and he needs to get it right, as he needs to keep his young players happy and ready to sign extensions when the time comes. The Pistons don’t have enough credibility as a franchise right now (well done Tom Gores!) to be changing out coaches every other year, so they need to make the right hire of a guy who can grow with the team and provide the type of stability that Casey has over the last five seasons.

The early frontrunners are all younger coaches who have not had their first head coaching job yet, and if Weaver gets the right person, they could be coach for a long time coming. If he chooses the wrong one, we could be right back here in two years and someone else might be doing the hiring.