Before he passed away, Troy Weaver's dad liked to collect and restore old trading cards. And Weaver liked to sit by his side and chat about the players of yesteryear. During one of their conversations, his dad left him with a message that resonates today: "You can only restore something that's great."
"That stuck with me," Weaver said Tuesday.
The Pistons are rebuilding. But from the moment he was introduced as the team's GM last summer, Weaver has used the word 'restoring.' Sometimes, semantics make sense.
"There's been greatness in Detroit with three championships, so that's why I wanted to say that," Weaver said. "No slight to what I'm about to say, but the Timberwolves can't restore; they don't have three championships, they don't have the greatness. The Atlanta Hawks can't restore. But the Detroit Pistons can restore. We want to restore the greatness back in the franchise."
It won't be easy, but Weaver is off to a good start. In the year they've sunk to the bottom of the East, the Pistons finally have an upward trajectory. A path to somewhere other than nowhere. That's because of Weaver's first four draft picks, one of whom we've only seen for seven games. And it's because of his first round of free agent signings, one of whom has made crickets of critics.
Weaver knows how to rebuild -- sorry, restore. He did it with the Jazz in the early 2000's and he did it again and again with the Thunder in the 2010's. And before he ever reached the NBA, he did it for nine years, ever year, as a coach in the college ranks.
"That's why I felt like I was a good fit here, because I have that experience and I could bring that level of patience and thoughtfulness that goes through a restoring or a rebuild or whatever people want to tag it," Weaver said. "That's why this situation was so attractive to me."
In the NBA, especially in a smaller market like Detroit, a restoration happens through the draft. It happens by assembling and developing a core group of players. The Pistons might have their Core Four in Killian Hayes, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and Saben Lee. And maybe that becomes their, uhm, Strive Five when they add another high pick in this year's draft. Cade Cunningham, anyone?
We're getting ahead of ourselves, but that's half the fun. Weaver's groundwork allow us to believe. When Hayes went down early in the year, it was tempting to tune this team out. Then three other rookies -- and Jerami Grant -- made us tune back in. Either Bey is knocking down threes, Stewart is gobbling up boards or Lee -- a kid Weaver stumbled across in high school while scouting his teammate Marvin Bagley -- is coming off the bench and dropping 20.
Best part about it? As we sit here and shake our heads, Weaver's over there nodding. Not proudly, not pretentiously, not in any way that would suggest he's smarter than those around him. Just sort of calmly, like everything is going according to plan.
"None of the rookies have surprised me," he said. "I know this sounds kind of weird coming from me, but no, I'm not surprised by Saben or Isaiah or Saddiq or Killian, to be honest. I'm not."
If he was asked, Weaver would say the exact same thing about Grant. And about Mason Plumlee, who, like his game or not, like his contract or not, is probably 'here to stay.' Those two embody the tenacity Weaver wants the Pistons to be known for, just like they were in the past. The team as a whole embodies the slogan on the walls of the practice facility: Piston Pride.
Eight of the Pistons' 10 wins this season have come against teams currently in the playoffs. They've beaten three of the top four teams in the East and two of the top three teams in the West. When they lose, they don't go down easy. That's what Weaver means by Piston Pride.
"Tune in and watch," he said. "We compete. I said from day one we wanted to compete, and to a man, to a coach, the guys have been very competitive. We never talked about wins and losses, and we won't right now. Of course everybody wants to look at your record, but we're trusting in doing the right things every day, building it the right way and laying a foundation for this restoring."
Greatness doesn't last, but it does leave a mark. In Detroit the mark hasn't faded. It's deep in the Pistons' DNA, born, revived and slowly coming back to life.
"I'm not the smartest guy, but I know what works here," said Weaver. "We're trying to be the third iteration of greatness in Detroit."
