Troy Weaver hears it, sees it, understands it. Feels it himself, the frustration of another lost season for the Pistons. But Weaver hasn't lost faith in his plan to restore this franchise to glory.
"We expect the wins to come," Weaver said Friday on 97.1 The Ticket in the wake of a trade deadline in which he dealt a former building block in Saddiq Bey for a potentially new one in James Wiseman. "We wanted the record to be better this year at this point, it hasn’t, but the pieces are in place for us to take a step forward."
At 14-42, the Pistons are headed for their third last-place finish in as many seasons under Weaver, which comprise three of the seven worst seasons in franchise history. They have the worst winning percentage in the NBA over the last four seasons, which is a good reminder of the mess Weaver inherited. After spending his first two years cleaning things up, Weaver expected this to be the year in which the Pistons made a move up the standings.
"We're in the competing stage, finally," he said at the outset of the season. "I didn’t think we had been there consistently the last two years, but I think now we’ll be able to compete every night with whomever we play."
Instead, they've been routinely blown out. The Pistons have 24 double-digit losses, half of which have come by 20-plus points. They have the second worst defense in the NBA, allowing nearly 120 points per game. As much as they've missed Cade Cunningham, who went down for the season with a shin injury in November, the Pistons had the exact same winning percentage with their franchise player as they have without him: .250.
A cynic would look at Weaver's work in Detroit and say all he's done is make a couple obvious picks high in the draft -- Cunningham 1st overall and Jaden Ivey 5th -- and load up on big men and failed reclamation projects just about everywhere else. (They might also say he whiffed on his first high pick by taking Killian Hayes over fellow point guard Tyrese Haliburton. The latter is an All-Star who leads the NBA in assists this season.) After trading for a former No. 2 pick in big man Marvin Bagley III at last year's deadline, Weaver traded for another this year in Wiseman. Size, he says, is the key to contending in the East.
And what would he say to the cynic above? What would he say to those who are starting to doubt his plan?
"I would say that we have enough young big guys up front to compete now, with the addition of Wiseman. We have guard play, although the lynchpin of that is out, with Cunningham and Ivey and also Hayes. We’ll have another top pick this year and we got some veterans that we held onto to help us," said Weaver.
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Despite widespread trade interest in Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks ahead of the deadline, Weaver rebuffed all offers with an eye on next season. He wants both of them on the court in Detroit. Bogdanovic, 33, is the Pistons' leading scorer (21.3 ppg) and Burks, 31, is their leading three-point shooter (42.1 percent). On top of their production, Weaver said the two veterans "are unbelievable for our young guys."
Asked about revisiting the trade market for either player this summer, Weaver said, "The plan is to have those guys on the floor."
"You can have vets in the locker room, but when you have vets in the locker room that play and help you, that’s a great sign for us going forward," he said. "And those guys, to their credit, wanted to stay here and be here and we look forward to moving forward with them."
Still, the Pistons won't move anywhere until they figure out their defense. And Weaver knows it. Things got ugly last week when they allowed 150 points at home to the Bucks, their 11th game this season allowing 130-plus. This is no way to honor, much less restore, their own past. At their best, the Pistons have always been defined by defense. Their lack of it this season may well cost coach Dwane Casey his job.
"Defense has to be our ethos," Weaver said. "It’s synonymous with Detroit Pistons basketball. That has to get fixed and we’re trying to fix it every day. We have to be great defensively, not good. And acquiring Wiseman goes into that thought process. If we’re going to be the Detroit Pistons and have a chance to be who we are in the restoring, defense has to be at the forefront. We’ll get that fixed, for sure."
This was never going to be a quick fix for the Pistons. Weaver took over a bad team with a bunch of bad contracts and very few assets. It's still a bad team three years later, but the books are balanced and the roster is burnished with young talent. This summer looms large: Weaver will have money to spend in free agency and likely another top-five pick in the draft. He has to nail both. With the fanbase getting restless, the losing can't continue, not like this. It's one thing to lead a team to the corner.
Quite another to turn it.
"Everybody’s getting restless," Weaver said. "But trust me, it’s here. The talent is here and it’s going to get turned. So I understand, but be patient: we’re on our way."
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