Is this really why the Detroit Pistons traded Bruce Brown?

Troy Weaver didn’t waste any time putting his stamp on the Detroit Pistons’ roster after taking over as general manager.

He was handed a mess, as the Pistons had a bloated payroll at the top, little to no young talent and no real assets to start the rebuild Weaver was tasked with.

None of the players Weaver inherited are still on the team, and that includes Bruce Brown, who was a fan favorite at the time due to his scrappy play.

Brown was traded in a complicated 3-team trade that involved a ton of players, and even at the time some fans were upset that Brown was essentially a throw-in to the deal.

That trade has been scrutinized even more now that Brown was a key part of a title team, and some fans would point to the Brown trade as one of Weaver’s worst. It’s easy to say that in hindsight, and the truth is that it made little sense for the Pistons to invest in Brown at the time, as they were tearing down the roster to start over.

It’s one Weaver might like to have back, but Brown was ultimately sacrificed to the restoration and his presence on the team might have been enough to keep the Detroit Pistons from getting Cade Cunningham, who knows.

But Bruce Brown has different ideas of why it happened.

Is this really why the Detroit Pistons traded Bruce Brown?

In a recent interview on the Tidal League network, Brown sat down to discuss his career, including his time on the Pistons. It was an interesting discussion and Brown had plenty to say about Blake Griffin, as well as why he thinks he was traded from the Pistons.

Here is the clip of Brown talking about the trade:

His feeling is that he was dealt partially because he skipped a non-mandatory two weeks of practice to take some time off during the COVID bubble games.

Given that Brown was a known hard worker, it’s hard to believe this is the reason why Detroit ultimately traded him, especially given the context of Troy Weaver’s recent hire and the flurry of moves he made to reset the roster.

This was a roster move and nothing else, though one that the Detroit Pistons may do differently if they could do it again.