As was expected, the Detroit Pistons announced that they are parting ways with GM Troy Weaver, the first personnel decision made by new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon.
Weaver will be credited with leaving the Pistons with financial flexibility (his hallmark) and a few good young players to build around, but ultimately his time will be remembered mostly for egregious tanking and the shots he didn’t take.
The tragic part of Weaver’s tenure was not that he made any massive errors or swung for the fences and missed, it’s that he didn’t try at all. The good moves he made to acquire talent ended with him trading it away for nothing or waiting too long to make a move.
While some tanking teams take on bad contracts to collect assets, the Pistons still owe a pick to the New York Knicks even after being the worst team in the NBA the past two seasons.
From misfires on broken projects, to never maximizing his cap space, to making inexplicable trades, Troy Weaver lost every move on the margins, and sadly, never actually tried to build a team. Unlike some of the recent rebuilds, Weaver did not have a star player to jumpstart things, and he did manage to land at least one player who looks like a star, but he never did anything to complement him, which is one of the reasons he is out of a job.
His failures in trades and free agency were his undoing (sorry, but anyone can tank and draft in the top five), a fact the Pistons PR team pointed out in a subtle parting shot.
Detroit Pistons PR takes shot at Troy Weaver
The Detroit Pistons PR team dropped the news about Weaver via press release on the team website with all of the expected cliches. He’s a great guy, he did a lot of good things, we wish him luck etc...
That last paragraph is brutal. pic.twitter.com/kNDvfW6ife
— PistonPowered (@PistonPowered) June 2, 2024
It was all very stock until the last paragraph, which listed Weaver’s “notable” additions via trade and free agency:
"His notable trade and free agent acquisitions included Simone Fontecchio and Quentin Grimes at this past season’s trade deadline along with Jerami Grant (2020 sign-and-trade), Kelly Olynyk (2021) and Cory Joseph (trade with Sacramento). "
Everything here is factual, but it’s the facts they chose to include that make this a veiled burn.
Of the five players mentioned, only one is guaranteed to be back on the team next season (Grimes) though it is widely expected that Fontecchio will also return.
He held onto Jerami Grant for too long (the original release had Grant’s name spelled wrong) and eventually dealt him for a pick that turned into Jalen Duren. So, he did get something for Grant, but likely could have had more, or just kept him, as the Pistons have had a glaring hole where Grant was since he was traded.
Olynyk was dealt as part of a trade for Bojan Bogdanovic, and again, I think you could argue that they would have been better off just keeping Olynyk, as they still need a veteran center and someone who can spread the floor and Bogdanovic missed a ton of games and never helped the team win.
Including Cory Joseph in this is the real kick in the jewels, as there is not one person on earth who thinks CoJo was a “notable” addition to the Pistons.
No mention of Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman, total busts who should have never been acquired in the first place, nor guys like Mason Plumlee, another useful veteran Weaver paid to give away.
No word about Killian Hayes, all the second-round whiffs or all of the useless salary dumps the Pistons took on in exchange for nothing. No mention of Joe Harris?
That would have just been cruel.
Instead, they gave Weaver a light parting shot by pointing out that his “notable” additions weren’t that notable and weren’t guys who helped the Pistons win then or now.
So, fare thee well Troy Weaver and thanks for your service. I wish you had lived up to your reputation as a guy who would “empty the clip.” I wish you had gotten fired for taking a brave chance or trying to build a team and failing instead of this.