Troy Weaver's first two seasons as GM of the Pistons have been, in his own words, "painful." He expects that to change by his third.
With the team poised to enhance an already promising core via the draft and free agency this offseason, Weaver believes "we can begin to compete at a high level" next season. That would be a welcome change for the fans, who haven't seen their team win so much as a playoff game in the last 14 years.
In his first public comments of the season, Weaver told reporters over the weekend that while he doesn't "have a marker" of when the Pistons' rebuild "will be done," "we don't expect it to be five years." In other words, the team is starting to turn the corner.
"We have to get the right people, get enough talent and then get that talent to be cohesive," Weaver said. "We’re still in the process right now of acquiring talent. When I got here, we just didn’t have enough talent."
Weaver has since added three faces of the Pistons' future in Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart, all of whom will play in the NBA's Rising Stars Challenge later this month. He also traded for Marvin Bagley last week and will be armed with another high draft pick and significant cap space this summer.
"Acquiring the talent and right people is where we are right now," Weaver said. "We expect next season to have enough talent in here to start getting the talent to try and be cohesive so they can start competing. That’s where we are right now -- continuing to acquire the talent. That should be bolstered by this addition of Bagley, another draft pick and cap space. Next season, we’re looking forward to having more talent here so that we can begin to compete at a high level."
A rebuild naturally takes time, but Weaver remains committed to building a "sustainable winner" in Detroit. He doesn't plan to cut corners along the way.
"I’m sure that some would like us to fast-track it, but you only have one shot at this thing," he said. "We don’t want to skip any steps. We don’t want to shortcut anything. We’re going to stay committed to the process and building it the right way. We’re not really concerned with how it looks, per se, in the win-loss record, as long as we build it the right way. Wins will come as long as we stay true to the process. We’re going to continue to follow the blueprint, and we feel very confident that we’ll come out on the other side of this thing."
The Pistons are tied with the Magic for the most losses in the NBA over the last two seasons and are back in the basement as the worst team in the league. But they have a young roster that continues to play hard, which has Weaver excited for what's to come.
"These guys stay true to the process and make it an exciting challenge to go through, restoring with these young men," said Weaver. "We call it 'restoring,' some people call it 'rebuilding,' 'retooling.' Whenever you’re going through this, it’s painful. That’s why I’ve always said that you have to have the right people. We absolutely have the right people. You don’t see or hear anything crazy coming out of Detroit, out of our locker room. You don’t see craziness involved with these young men. They’ve been true, professional, and work their tails off in spite of the result. I’m just proud of how they’ve handled themselves and how they’ll continue to keep grinding."