Troy Weaver needed barely a year to turn over the entire Pistons roster. From Blake Griffin to Bruce Brown, every player Weaver inherited when he took over as the team's GM last June is gone. The last to go was former 15th overall pick Sekou Doumbouya.
The Pistons traded Doumbouya to the Nets in early September for four second-round picks in a deal that helped Brooklyn unload DeAndre Jordan's contract.
Doumbouya took a step back last season, averaging 5.1 points in 56 games and struggling to get on the floor. But he still has plenty of upside at the age of 20. He may well fulfill it with the Nets. Speaking with the media Monday for the first time since the trade, Weaver was asked what went into the decision to move on from a player who not long ago felt like a pillar of the Pistons' rebuild.
"It was a couple things," Weaver said. "One, we liked the trade opportunity to replenish our second-round picks, for sure. And then I think that like every player we’ve moved on from, we wanted to give them an opportunity to grow somewhere else. Sekou, I was only here with him for one season. He had come in and done a nice job, but I thought him getting a fresh start somewhere else would help his career."
In other words, Weaver wasn't sold on Doumbouya's potential. For all his raw talent, he was prone to lapses in focus and energy. Those are two non-negotiables for Weaver, who's said over and over that he wants to build the Pistons around competitive, hard-working players with high basketball IQ.
Weaver also set out to improve the Pistons' shooting this offseason; Doumbouya is shooting 38 percent from the field and 25 percent from three through two seasons. And, like most young players, he's not always engaged defensively. The second-round picks are nice, but they're spread out over six years starting in 2022.
Weaver said it wasn't his aim to overhaul Detroit's roster when he arrived, "it just morphed that way" as he sought out the type of players he likes.
"If there were 10 players on the team I really liked, they would have stayed," said Weaver. "It wasn’t my deal to come in and just change the entire roster. It just happened that way."