Troy Weaver has said it before as GM of the Pistons, and said it again Tuesday night: "We don’t cry over spilled milk." After all, the Pistons' glass was half-full in 2021 when they won the right to draft Cade Cunningham.
In this year's lottery, a year after slipping two spots to No. 5 and three years after falling two spots to No. 7, the Pistons plunged from No. 1 to No. 5, a gut-punch for a franchise that has the most losses in the NBA over the last five seasons and for a fanbase that was pinning its hopes on Victor Wembanyama.
It was the worst possible outcome for the Pistons on the heels of the second worst season in franchise history. To the loser did not go the Victor. Invoking a brave face on a conference call with local reporters, Weaver said, "It doesn’t matter where you land. You gotta hit the ball wherever you bat in the order."
The Pistons will try to hit a home run again at No. 5, as they believe they did last year with Jaden Ivey. And then they'll try to maximize their roster in free agency and the draft, with a significant amount of cap space at their disposal. Next season can't look like this season, which ended with Weaver writing a letter to the fans asking for more patience while insisting the organization is "on the right path to success." What he does with the No. 5 pick, take it or leave it, could well determine the fate of his 'restoration' in Detroit.
"We like the draft," said Weaver, who also has a head coach to hire. "We think it’s another high-end draft where there’s a lot of high-end talent at the top. Obviously, No. 1 was a different tier, but we’re excited about where we are to add another young player to our core."
Of course, Weaver acknowledged it himself: Wembanyama is in a class of his own. The 7'5 French phenom is considered the best NBA prospect since LeBron James, who himself has dubbed Wembanyama "an alien." ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowksi took it a step further and called Wembanyama "maybe the greatest prospect in the history of team sports." He said prior to the lottery that Tuesday could go down as "one of the most consequential nights in the history of the NBA."
It was just another crushing letdown for the city of Detroit, which knows lottery losses all too well. The Pistons just can't afford to view it that way, or "you’re not going to be successful," Weaver said.
"I wasn’t going in expecting the No. 1 pick. I don’t believe in luck and chance," he said. "If we landed there we would have been excited, but we’re prepared to move forward. It’s not 1 or bust. I mean, I'm watching LeBron James who was No. 1 who’s been a tremendous player, but he’s playing against (Nikola) Jokic who was No. 41 who’s been a back-to-back MVP. You gotta add a player to your group and move forward. But no, we never viewed it as 1-or-bust."
It's up to Weaver to prove it, by improving the Pistons regardless. G League guard Scoot Henderson and Alabama forward Brandon Miller are viewed as the consolation prizes of the draft. In theory, that only heightens the pain of the Pistons' tumble, excluding them from the next-best tier of players. But again, Weaver sees things -- or has to see things -- differently.
"A lot of people had it tiered that way. I saw it as 1 and then another tier," he said. "I think you can scramble it up pretty much from 3 to 8, and we’re in that range at 5. So we’re excited to land there and get another good young player, if we’re picking there."
That's an important caveat, alluding to a potential trade. Weaver appreciates the need for the Pistons to pick up steam next season. Without Wembanyama to propel them into the future, it falls on Weaver to enhance the roster around Cunningham, Ivey and Jalen Duren. If that means trading the No. 5 pick to accelerate the rebuild in year four -- or will it be year five? -- "we’re going to turn over every rock and vet it out," Weaver said. The surest way to win a lottery is to stop playing.
"Absolutely, we’ll entertain any of those things," Weaver said. "We’re excited about this draft pool, but we’ll do our diligence on trying to move the team forward any way we can."
Had the balls fallen in the Pistons' favor, they could have mailed in their pick Tuesday night. But a lottery is exactly that, an event governed by chance that preys on desperation and then devours hope. The Pistons' worst possible pick was also their most probable. They had a 48 percent chance of falling to No. 5, a 14 percent chance of winning No. 1. If that doesn't feel fair for a team that just lost 65 games, the Pistons better stop gambling. Weaver, for the record, said he has no "problem with it at all."
"The system is what it is," he said. "We landed at 1 two years ago, so I would be hypocritical to get on here and say I want things to be different because we didn’t get 1 this year. No, it’s the system that’s been put in place and you just gotta maximize your opportunity."
Level-headed words, from a GM whose team has yet to level up. Defiant in the face of a challenge that might be even taller than he anticipated. Weaver is right: the Pistons got their gift in Cunningham. It would be too much to ask for another. It's no longer too much to ask the Pistons to start winning, and the answers must come from Weaver this summer.
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