I did a double take at the box scores last night when I saw our old friend Saddiq Bey had dropped 42 points, seven assists and five rebounds on the Jazz, but it’s something he’s been doing with regularity lately.
Bey has scored 30 points or more three times in his last 10 games, culminating with last night’s outburst when he went 14-of-20 from the floor and 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
Bey is averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists on the season while shooting 45.5 percent from the floor and a mediocre 35.5 percent from long range.
But he’s been on a tear in his last 20 games, averaging over 20 points per game in that span and shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range on seven attempts per game.
Bey is having a bit of a renaissance on a bad Pelicans team and now looks like a bargain for them, as he’s making just over $6 million this season and next.
He looks fully healthy and like the quality role player he was shaping up to be for the Pistons. Ironically, he’s doing it under the same GM that traded him away.
Troy Weaver got his guy back, but it cost the Pistons
Troy Weaver loved nothing more than taking a flyer on a high upside bust, which he did with both Marvin Bagley III and James Wiseman, two players who he eventually had to pay to give away after paying to get them in the first place.
In the case of Wiseman, the cost was Saddiq Bey who was sent packing in favor of a guy Weaver fell in love with in the draft and couldn’t quit.
Wiseman was seen as having the much higher ceiling, while Bey had “journeyman role player” written all over him, so Weaver took a chance, one that didn’t play out well for the Pistons.
The Warriors were able to flip Bey to the Hawks for five second-round picks, so even they got more out of Bey than the Pistons, and it was in the same four-team deal.
I’m not trying to re-write history here, as both Bey and Weaver are part of a Pistons’ era that is best forgotten, but when you see what he’s doing with the Pelicans right now, it’s hard not to imagine what Bey would look like coming off the Pistons’ bench.
It all seems like the ancient past now that the Pistons are good, so I’m not trying to cry about Bey, but I do find it funny that he’s playing his best basketball under Troy Weaver, the very man who traded him for a player who is no longer in the league.
Good on Saddiq Bey and I wish him well.