One of the first moves that Troy Weaver made as Pistons GM remains one of his most questionable. In November of 2020, he traded up-and-coming guard Bruce Brown to the Nets for a future second-round pick and Dzanan Musa, a player the Pistons would waive a month later.
Brown, 24 at the time, just signed a two-year, $45 million deal with the Pacers after helping the Nuggets win the NBA title. His defense and competitiveness would fit well with the team Weaver is trying to build in Detroit.
But Weaver apparently had little interest in keeping him around after Brown, a second-round pick in 2018 who'd started 58 games for Detroit the previous season, left the Pistons' optional minicamp in Detroit during the NBA's COVID bubble to take a trip home for his birthday.
“It’s August and Troy Weaver comes in as the new GM," Brown said this week on the Run Your Race podcast. "It’s around my birthday in August and I'm like, I’ve been there every day. All the other times, I’m there. This one time, I’m like, ‘Listen, it’s my birthday. I’m just gonna stay home for these two weeks, but I’ll come back right after.’
“Before I tell him this, they’re calling me like, ‘Hey, you want to get together for dinner? Go golf, whatever?' I’m like, cool, that’s straight. I tell them that I'll come back after the two weeks and they don’t say nothing to me."
Brown said he told the Pistons training staff upon his return, "I think I’m about to be out of here. They’re not talking to me. They’re not saying ‘What up?’ Nothing." And on his way into the team facility the next day, Brown said the Pistons called him and told him he was gone.
"I’m literally walking into my workout, I don’t even have Troy’s number saved, random phone call. I answered, it was Troy like, ‘Hey, we’re going in a different direction. You’re going to Brooklyn.' Straight like that. I said, ‘Alright.’ I walked in, said bye and walked out," said Brown. "Straight to New York."
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