Troy Weaver is out as the general manager of the Detroit Pistons, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and James Edwards III.
This news comes eight days after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Trajan Langdon would leave the New Orleans Pelicans‘ front office to become the Pistons’ new president of basketball operations.
Detroit hired Weaver away from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer of 2020. Since then, the franchise has added significant talent through the draft — Cade Cunningham (the No. 1 pick in 2021), Jaden Ivey (No. 5 in 2022), Jalen Duren (No. 13 in 2022, acquired via trade) and Ausar Thompson (No. 5 in 2023) give them an interesting young core — but the front office’s efforts to improve the team (i.e. signing Jerami Grant and Mason Plumlee, trading for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks) never paid off.
In the 2020 offseason, Weaver memorably told reporters, “I love bigs!” For the entirety of his tenure, there was something of a logjam in the frontcourt. While Duren looks like an excellent complement to Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart represents perfectly good value for a mid-first-round pick, Detroit’s acquisitions of James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley III (who was salary-dumped halfway through the three-year, $37.5 million contract it gave him) were far less successful.
In Cunningham, Ivey and Thompson, Langdon is inheriting a roster with three high-ceiling guards 22 years old or younger. The 23-year-old Marcus Sasser, acquired in a draft-day trade last year, had an encouraging rookie season, too. The less said about Kllian Hayes, the better, though, so I’ll just note that the the Pistons drafted him No. 7 in 2020 and he is no longer in the NBA.
Detroit is in “serious talks” to hire executive Michael Blackstone to be second in command under Langdon. Blackstone, currently New Orleans’ vice president of basketball operations, has worked with Langdon for the past four seasons.
Pistons owner Tom Gores has told Langdon that money is no object when it comes to making changes to the front office and the coaching staff, according to The Athletic. Last offseason, Detroit hired coach Monty Williams on a six-year, $78.5 million deal.
The Pistons went 14-68 this past season, the worst record in the league.
