If you can say one thing about Troy Weaver as GM of the Detroit Pistons, it’s that he was an equal opportunity employer. He’d give any player a chance.
The biggest criticism against Weaver was that he never really tried to build a team, instead patching together a roster out of fringe NBA players, G-Leaguers and over-the-hill veterans as if he were running some kind of charity for NBA wannabes.
This spiraled when he drafted Cade Cunningham, then failed for years to put anything resembling a coherent roster around him. He had the #1 pick in the draft playing with guys who weren’t fits and many who weren’t actual NBA players.
That much is obvious now that Weaver has been demoted to an advisor for the Wizards, as many of his pet projects no longer have jobs in the NBA.
Former Detroit Pistons who are out of work
I’m sure all the washed vets with bloated expiring contracts, former first-round busts and G-League players were sad to see Troy Weaver go, as he was their best shot at steady work.
Here are NINE guys who played significant minutes for the Pistons last season who no longer play in the NBA, in case you were wondering why Detroit won 14 games last year:
-Malachi Flynn: G-League
-Killian Hayes: G-League
-Troy Brown: Turkey
-Danilo Gallinari: Unemployed
-Joe Harris: Retired
-Marvin Bagley III: Playing six minutes a game for the Wizards
-Isaiah Livers: Unemployed
-Evan Fournier: Greece
-Kevin Knox: G-League
Flynn played 24 games for the Pistons last season and became the least likely NBA player in history to score 50 points in the game. He’s now in the G-League.
Killian Hayes, who was Troy Weaver’s biggest mistake, actually started 31 games for Detroit last season, many of them over Jaden Ivey, as Monty Williams and Troy Weaver teamed up for what could be the worst coaching/GM performance in league history.
Joe Harris made $20 million last season to play 16 games, not bad work if you can get it.
MBIII was a bust who never got any better and cost the Pistons I can’t even remember how many second-round picks between the ones they used to get him and the ones they had to give away to get rid of him. This was a travesty of asset management if ever there was one.
Isaiah Livers could never get healthy and was awful even when he could play. I wish him well, but he seems to have injury doom.
Evan Fournier managed to parlay his time with the Pistons into a Greek holiday and Troy Weaver is probably trying to sign Kevin Knox for the 12th time out of the G-League as we speak.
It’s wild that all of these players were on one team last season. Most teams have turnover in their roster, but not this much, and most of them go to other NBA teams, not straight out of the league never to return.
This was GM malpractice by Troy Weaver, and we wonder why the development of Cunningham, Ivey, Duren and Stewart was stunted when they were saddled with a supporting cast that shouldn’t have even been in the league.
Trajan Langdon has already built a better roster than Weaver did in four seasons just by adding a couple of competent NBA players. Who could have known?