Pistons general manager Troy Weaver said newly acquired center James Wiseman will get plenty of playing time, even though the team seemingly has an overload of bigs, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets.
“He needs to play,” the Pistons’ top executive said. “With your talent, if you don’t use it, you lose it. We need him to get back out there to use his talent and be confident as a player.”
Weaver also indicated the Pistons needed another quality big man to combat the top teams in the Eastern Conference, who have regularly pushed them around, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press tweets. “You don’t have a chance (without size). Point blank period. We need some men and some size,” he said. “We haven’t beaten those teams yet. If you look at those games, we’ve usually struggled on the glass.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Jordan Nwora, acquired from the Bucks on Thursday, will get an expanded look with Indiana, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter links). “He got limited opportunities because of their veterans and guys who were in front of him just didn’t get injured that much. … This will be a great opportunity for him here,” Carlisle said. Nwora, who is expected to make his Pacers debut on Monday, is a player Indiana has coveted for a while. “Nwora is a guy we’ve had interest in the last couple of years. … We were somewhere close to acquiring him but could never quite get there,” Carlisle said.
- George Hill, who was also part of the giant four-team swap that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix, doesn’t want to be waived by the Pacers, Dopirak adds in another tweet. President of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard gave Hill the option of being on the 15-man roster or being waived and the veteran guard chose to stay with his hometown team.
- Forward Jae Crowder wound up with the Bucks after the Suns-Nets blockbuster was expanded to include Milwaukee and Indiana. The Bucks have been trying to acquire him for months and GM Jon Horst called the trade talks challenging, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm writes. “It was something we’ve been working on for a long time,” he said. “It was one of the most incredible, kind of challenging, pursuits of a player I’ve ever been a part of, to be honest with you. Different iterations and different things that happened. The Phoenix situation, and then all of a sudden he goes to a different team, and then it’s kind of back to the market.” Next, Milwaukee will have to figure out how to incorporate Crowder into the rotation. “We feel like we made a great add,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll have to figure out how it all fits together.”
I understand why Westbrook would want to stay in Utah (remainder of $47M), but I’m not sure why Hill would want to stay in Indiana (remainder of $4M). Both teams are on the fringes of the playoffs, so it’s not like they would have nothing to play for, but they’re not title contenders either.
He’s from Indianapolis – – maybe that was a factor.
Plus he got his ring with the bucks!
Hill was not with the Bucks at that time.
Westbrook or Hill don’t lose any salary if they’re bought out unless they choose to negotiate less to be let go. Salary has nothing to do with their decision to agree to a buyout or not.
Some guys will let a team to buy them out for less than their full salary owing by the amount of the vet minimum to let them sign with a contender, but you don’t ever see a guy agree to anything more than that.
Hill has a lot of fans here. He played hs ball in Broad Ripple (Indy borough), college at IUPUI, and was on some of the best Pacers teams of the last 10 years.
Hill has a tattoo of the state I believe. He got it when he was in San Antonio and was traded to the Packers like a few months later.
Never knew Troy was such a size King. Play on playa
Hard not to compare Wiseman with fellow M-Town legend William Bedford (tho somehow i feel like no one here ever would smh). Hopefully Wiseman’s stint in motown goes better than Bedford’s. If he can establish chemistry with guys like Killian, Ivey & CoryJo that would be a great start… link to m.youtube.com
Wow…nice callback on Bedford! Haven’t heard that name for years. The drug problems derailed his career.
I remember Bedford but whenever I see an article by James Edwards of The Athletic I want to shout Buhda. I remember the baseline turnaround fadeaway and he was an absolute master
James Edwards was an underrated beast even while he was playing fr
Ummm…How? Bedford played college hoops, unlike Wiseman. Bedford had a drug problem, unlike Wiseman.
Too true, too true Mr Weaver, in hoops you need size, at the end of the day you ain’t winning squat with a bunch of guards & shooters if you don’t have size.