JUNE 1: The Pistons announced Weaver’s departure in a press release, calling it a “mutual decision.”
“I very much appreciate all the dedication Troy displayed to our Pistons franchise,” Gores said in a statement. “As much as we have struggled lately, we will look back and see Troy as an important person in the remaking of the Pistons. He took the pain of rebuilding head on and he did the hard work to get us the flexibility we have today. He also assembled a great core of young men with tremendous skill and character to give us a path to the future. Make no mistake, I have real appreciation for who Troy is as a person and what he has meant to the organization. I wish him the very best as he pursues his ventures.”
MAY 31: The Pistons and general manager Troy Weaver are parting ways following the team’s decision to hire Trajan Langdon as its new head of basketball operations, according to James L. Edwards III and Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Reporting ahead of Langdon’s hiring indicated that Detroit’s new top front office decision-maker would be given the freedom to either retain or let go of Weaver. According to Edwards and Charania, the Pistons offered Weaver the option of staying with the franchise in an off-site scouting role, but he turned down that position and will leave the organization.
Weaver was hired as the Pistons’ general manager in 2020 and oversaw a full-scale rebuild during his four-year tenure. However, the team hasn’t made the strides that ownership and management were hoping for and expecting. After winning 20 games in Weaver’s first year and 23 in his second, Detroit has gotten even worse over the last two seasons, compiling just 17 wins in 2022/23 and a league-worst 14 this past season.
Weaver made some good draft picks during his time with the Pistons, as Edwards and Charania note. Cade Cunningham, 2021’s No. 1 overall pick, has star potential, 2020 first-rounder Isaiah Stewart has developed into a solid rotation player, and Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, and Marcus Sasser have shown promise. However, Weaver’s first lottery pick – Killian Hayes at No. 7 in 2020 – was a miss, and his moves to fill out the roster around the young core weren’t particularly fruitful.
Langdon is expected to have “free rein” to make changes to both the front office and coaching staff, according to Edwards and Charania, who say that team owner Tom Gores has told him that money is no object.
With Weaver no longer in the picture, Detroit is in serious talks to potentially hire another Pelicans executive, league sources tell The Athletic — Michael Blackstone, the VP of basketball administration in New Orleans, could become Langdon’s second-in-command with the Pistons, per Edwards and Charania. Blackstone spent time in the Cavaliers’ and Hawks’ front offices before being hired by the Pelicans in 2020.
About time. Weaver era will be remembered in a bad way.
Good decision and clean out the house.
Meanwhile…my owner still wants AKME and Billy.
“Run it back 2025 version”.
About time-
Id want to give my new front office more than 25 days to assemble a draft and 60+ mill in cap plan, brutal
There is no doubt in my mind that Troy Weavers next job comes in Chicago, the only worse organization in basketball than Detroit and Detroit at least has Cade Ausar and Duren, Sasser is cool as a bench scorer but the obsession with Stewart has to stop, his NBA was long ago
According to rumors, Monty Williams took the Pistons job for the money $78 million but not for the team
He has negative achievement in term of wins
By comparison, Mike Brown would be worth $150 million?
Tell me more.
It’s not even a rumor. He declined the job at first and then signed when they offered him that contract. Of course it’s about the money.
Doesn’t everyone take a job for money?
I wouldn’t work for McDonald’s but if they paid me $250k to drop fries im dropping fries from now on
I said the fact that he didn’t get their own FRP back from the Knicks was a fireable offense.
That pick is never conveying anyways with the protections it has
That’s the problem, it’s preventing them from making trades.
Google it there’s a couple articles about it
Pistons signed washed up and checked out Charlie Villanueva, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith and somehow Weaver was worse.
Good riddance.
It’s actually incredible how much this organization has messed up
As inept as Detroit is, I still think Portland is worse. They passed on Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant in favor of Sam Bowie and Greg Oden.
darko…
Wasn’t Sam Bowie really good until he got injured? Same with Greg Oden. There was another guy, too. They’ve had really bad luck with injured players. Pistons have had their run with injuries as well. Hard to predict that.
I don’t see Langdon offering Tobias that deal. I think he would take a chance at Miles Bridges rather than Tobias.
Hopefully Monty is the next one shown the exit door..his coaching doesn’t fit well with this team as assembled
Sam Presti didn’t give much juju magic to his OKC protegees.