The coaching search has been unsettling but I still think the majority of the moves have been the right ones considering where Weaver started. The gambles on the former high picks have all been low to no risk so even if none pan out it’s not a major issue. He’s drafted well (outside of Hayes) and done a good job getting good trade value for the most part.
Mainly I think you’re at the ground floor of this teardown and now comes the hard part of the actual rebuild. You have to see how this off-season goes and if they can demonstrate progress. A smart off-season of drafting and value trades/signings should get this team toward the 30+ win range which would give reason for some optimism. Another year of stalled progress or a major miss on the coach would certainly make a change next year on the table.
I have concerns about Weaver but he has them in good shape with young talent and no bad contracts.
I do worry that he does favors too much. There’s no reason Buddy Boeheim should have been on a two-way. That gives me pause regarding Kevin Ollie who could be a great coach for all I know.
Haha fair enough, but I guess I don’t know what the alternative is. I’m looking at these as trials serving the purpose of maybe identifying a loose asset or at worse helping the tank the last few seasons. If this continues to be the trend as we try to move towards competitive then I’ll agree it’s not the best approach
I would like to see a team that can play 48 minutes with at least 3 people on the floor who can make a jump shot
My main gripe with Weaver is that we have yet to see a roster that makes a lick of sense in principle. I know there are extenuating circumstances to that, but they were intending to compete this year, and I don’t think 2nd year Cade is a 20 game swing.
I know that this board is down on Bey (I don’t recall them being so until he got traded but hey) but a playable wing has far more value in today’s NBA than a Wiseman lottery ticket, even if Wiseman became playable.
worth noting he’s also awful and has always been awful and nobody is taking him for $12 mil unless they get to send back a degrading unstable brick of plutonium
I’m not arguing it’s a franchise-altering bad contract, but it’s a bad contract.
Obviously I got a ton of stick here for saying I thought Weaver was a bottom 1/3 GM so I’m sypmathetic to @kherodan32 take. If they go belly up again this year, I’d be 100% out on him.
Biggest problem I had with Bey is the money he is going to cost when his rookie deal is up. I don’t think he is worth what he would have likely been paid by Detroit. Plus we already saw what the pistons looked like with him (not good) so it’s not like trading him alters the franchise in any way. And based on the result of the trade, he obviously didn’t have that much trade value. Maybe he would have if they hung onto him another year? Who knows.
I was mostly asking the question because a lot of fans (in every city, every sport) like to complain about GMs, but don’t usually say what they’d like to do differently. Is there a particular player or players in free agency that you’d like to see targeted? Are there any trades you think could viably be made? What needs do we want to address in the draft?
I can’t just say “find Gabe Vincents and Duncan Robinsons and Caleb Martins and don’t give away Bruce Browns”, but some fraction of that.
Agreed on Bey’s contract, and the jury’s still out on Stewart. But there’s a chance that entire draft yields nothing beyond a nice bench 4/5 and a wing you didn’t want to pay because the D part of 3&D didn’t materialize. Which is underwhleming.
I liked the idea of trading Bey for another shot at a star (the Pistons need to find their stars first) but with the more promising Duren already on the roster I think they could have gone for something else.
Look, I’ve defended Weaver plenty on here but tanking is no longer tenable lest we lose Cade when his contract expires in 2 years. In 3 years, Weavers efforts have yielded Cade, Ivey, and Duren as valuable trade assets. Young players who could become assets are Stew, a perennially injured Livers and uh…. literally noone else. Killian, Bags, Wiseman are not worth the time or investment.
I say spend cap on Free Agents, maybe get someone like Kuzma to get us to 30+ wins. These contracts will expire once our young core have to renew their contracts, and we can dip into the market later on as a better team.
I’m not the GM, none of us are. Maybe Troy’s hands are tied by a multitude of factors that make managing the Pistons a difficult challenge, which simply means he has to be as close to perfect as possible.
I’d be interested in one of the two Wizards stars - Kuzma or Porzingis. Not sure what kind of contracts they are going to get, but both would fit nicely on this roster. That said, I’m sure both will have options better than the Pistons. Maybe Kuzma wants to come home though.
I’d be into Cam Johnson, but he’s restricted so you might have to overpay for him.
All of those guys are gonna be 30+ by the time Cade is reaching something resembling the height of his powers. You want to make the playoffs bc your core is good not bc you overpaid to drag your core up. Going to be especially the case once w/ the new CBA from what I can tell.