Cade Cunningham after Pistons win: ‘Feels good to represent the city’
Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren speak after the Detroit Pistons beat the New York Knicks in Game 2 of their first-round NBA playoff series.
Two of the Detroit Pistons’ most notable former executives are running the New Orleans Pelicans.
Joe Dumars, who was just named president of basketball operations, has hired Troy Weaver as senior vice president of basketball operations according to a report from Marc J. Spears of Andscape. Weaver previously was a senior advisor for his hometown Washington Wizards.
Weaver was general manager of the Pistons from 2020-24. He compiled a talented young core — one that on Monday snapped the team’s 17-year drought without a playoff win this week — and cleaned up the team’s financial outlook.
Weaver was fired after a historically awful 14-68 season in 2023-24 that culminated with team owner Tom Gores making leadership changes for both the front office and coaching staff by bringing in Trajan Langdon and J.B. Bickerstaff.
The Pistons were torn down to the studs during Weaver’s first season, after he inherited a roster with Blake Griffin (and the remainder of his five-year, $171 million contract). His draft-night trade for Isaiah Stewart, which sent a protected future first-round pick to the Houston Rockets, was an initial gamble that paid off this season, with Stewart once again establishing himself as one of the league’s top defensive big men, and the team’s emotional leader.
Griffin eventually reached a buyout with the Pistons, and losses piled as they prioritized high lottery picks and rode out dead money on their cap sheet. The strategy finally paid off this season with 44 wins — a historic 30-game improvement from last season — and Cade Cunningham breaking out as an All-Star. Stewart and Ausar Thompson, two players Weaver lobbied for, anchored a defense that was the league’s fifth-best after Jan. 1.
Weaver’s 74-244 record and .233 win percentage as Pistons GM is the eighth-worst mark for a lead executive in NBA history, according to Basketball Reference. That mostly reflects the organization’s commitment to build a team through the draft. The Oklahoma City Thunder, who Weaver was a high-ranking executive for and led scouting efforts from 2008-20, have successfully built contending teams via tanking multiple times, including leading into their historic 68-win season this year.
There was an understanding the win-loss record would be ugly. Landing the first overall pick in 2021 and selecting Cunningham was the outcome they were hoping for, and one that ultimately righted the franchise’s path. But confidence in his leadership waned due to stumbles along the way.
Cunningham’s season-ending surgery in December 2022 derailed hopes of the team taking a step forward in Weaver’s third season in charge. But the roster lacked in other areas — namely, shooting and perimeter defense — and it was part of the reason the team endured an NBA single-season record 28-game losing streak in 2023-24 season.
Draft picks Killian Hayes and Isaiah Livers, once viewed as potential franchise centerpieces, were unready for the roles handed to them. The Pistons got little contribution from two of their main offseason additions in Monte Morris, who only appeared in six games due to injury, and Joe Harris, who shot 33.3% from 3 in 16 games and was waived that February. He retired in August.
They were also weak at the center position, due to Weaver’s failed reclamation dice rolls and a commitment to playing Stewart at power forward next to Jalen Duren in the starting lineup. Marvin Bagley III and James Wiseman, like Duren, were strong rebounders and lob threats but didn’t provide enough on defense. Also, the Pistons waited too late to maximize value in the trade market for Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, who they eventually flipped at the trade deadline in 2024.
A 28-game losing streak amid a 3-29 start to the season quickly threw the Pistons’ 2023-24 season, the worst in franchise history, into disarray. Head coach Monty Williams, who Gores enticed to Detroit with a historic contract before the season, ended up backfiring. Williams’ questionable roster decisions and personality misfit with the rest of the franchise, along with the roster’s lack of defense and spacing, was a toxic combination that ended with Weaver and Williams’ dismissals.
In New Orleans he’ll join Pistons great Dumars, the architect of the 2004 title team, for a shot at bringing life to a franchise that’s never won a championship and is coming off of a 21-win season. Weaver’s four-year tenure in Detroit was mixed with successes and failures, but his acumen as a talent identifier has led to his next high-profile gig.
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