He needs to rest Bam. Who is he gonna bring in to give him a breather? Miami bench isn’t exactly brimming with playable bigs to combat Joker. Regardless, it was going to be a matchup for any of them against Joker.
They have good role players just don’t have the stars to make them shine. KCP was drafted to be the top two option when he shouldn’t be. Same with Reggie via trade. Ish has been solid for the Pistons as a backup G. Bruce has been solid as a bench piece but trading him was the right call for Weaver and I know a lot of them were crying about him getting traded.
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I mean, the Brown trade has redounded to Brown for James Wiseman right? I’m not sure that’s clearly good.
Bruce Brown is a floor raiser and it’s not who they need to tank. He’s a non-shooter in a very specific role and the Nuggets happen to be a perfect fit. I mean he was in the FA market for a while so the NBA didn’t view him as a viable player at the time.
and they were wrong! He’s been a rotation player on 2 good teams and is good enough to play 20 mins in the NBA finals for the champion. I wouldn’t call that a floor raiser - he’s a good rotational player for a good team.
You can’t convince me that trading him for what ended up being nothing was good. I’ll acknowledged it wasn’t clear at the time, but that’s what talent evaluation is (he also took a major leap forward in shooting this year). They’re trying to find a Bruce Brown right now (or they should be)
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At the time, Bruce was a non-shooter who isn’t a PG. Bruce Brown has developed his game into an useable rotational player who will get a nice payday as a result from the playoff run. I don’t blame Weaver for trading him away especially when he’s trying to blow up the roster for assets and to get high lottery draft picks.
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It’s hard to argue both that he wasn’t good and that he would have spoiled the tank in the same post.
All teams let guys go that they shouldn’t. It’s fine to acknowledge it.
Never said he wasn’t good.
If he pivoted away from him in less than 60 seconds, there were other options.
That seems pretty irrefutable.
Why was trading a plus defender like Brown for a guy who didn’t make the team the right call?
Because they’re starting over in a rebuild. Keeping a non shooter in a G body who plays like a wing/big on offense isn’t the player to keep going forward. Bruce would’ve done badly with the Pistons with the tanking. He needs to be on a specific scheme/team to be effective and Pistons wasn’t going to be that team.
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He’s a shooter now
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Shot 35% on 3.2 attempts per game. Not exactly a shooter. Plus his shooting split without Jokic is 18% worse so evidence that he is still a nonshooter who is better off playing with stars to be an impactful role player
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And he improved his shooting numbers by quite a bit in his 2nd year with the Pistons.
Troy Weaver wasn’t exactly looking to tank when he took over. Otherwise, why spend big money on bringing Jerami Grant in? Why sign Plumlee? Why not buy out Blake Griffin before the season started?
The tank didn’t start until later in the season.
And, from the draft, it seemed like Troy was looking for defensive players with work ethic (not sure if Killian fits the latter part). Guys who may have “Pistons DNA”, that gets talked about.
Bruce Brown really fit that mold and he was still pretty young at 24. Trading him for Musa and a conveyed 2nd rounder was inexplicable.
Yeah, that was a trade I didn’t like even at the time. Felt like he fit the culture they said they were trying to establish.
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I don’t know anyone who liked the trade at the time, and it has only gotten worse. Was is a franchise-crushing trade? No. But, it did weaken us.
I’m happy that he’s built upon his start here but it still stings a bit. I feel like he has become the best-case scenario of Killian, maybe with a few less APG. And I don’t see Killian getting there. Bruce has always had that edge to him.
I would compare him to Hami, another guard shaped person that plays more like a stretch four on offense. Hami is a better finisher but Brown is a better shooter and just a smarter player on both ends.
Hami is a lot of fun to watch, at least inside of 16 feet. I don’t think he’s going to be back next year but I really enjoyed what he brought to the Pistons.
Improved from 27% to 35% at a similar attempts but attempts indicates that he’s a non-shooter. He was being used as a guard-like big at Brooklyn which they put him in a dunker spot quite often which tells you what they think of him as a shooter.
Bringing in Jerami doesn’t necessarily mean they were looking to win. Weaver stripped the roster from fringe playoff team at best to tanking. Weaver tried to find a trade partner to get Blake off the book without having to buy his contract out. When he didn’t, he brought him out. Plumlee doesn’t really move the needle for winning tbh. That’s how he got Cade and Jaden/Duren.
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Buying out Blake, trading D-Rose, and shutting down Grant, Plums, and others for the last several weeks of the season was how they got in position to get Cade.