Pistons see promising future after club’s first season of ‘restoration’ under GM Weaver

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Detroit Pistons’ first-year general manager Troy Weaver should have expected the club to bottom out.

Weaver revamped the Pistons’ roster after taking charge of the team. Former first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya is the only player left on the roster from this time a year ago and the Pistons opted to place five rookies on the roster.

So, for the Pistons to finish with the worst record in the Eastern Conference and second-worst record in the NBA at 20-52 should not have come as a great surprise.

“Twenty wins don’t sit well with me,” Weaver said Monday. “I don’t like anything about it. The only way to improve that is I’ve got to come back better and I’m looking forward to coming back better. There’s a lot of work to be done. This 20 wins is not happening again.

“When I took the job, I had one goal in mind and that was to restore the Pistons and I won’t stop. I won’t quit until it happens.”

Weaver does not like the term rebuild. When he speaks of the current state of the club, he refers to it as restoration project. Despite the record, many around the NBA believe Weaver took big steps toward that goal in his first season.

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He moved at a dizzying pace at the NBA Draft. Not only did he point guard Killian Hayes with the club’s seventh overall pick. He also added two more first-round picks in trades that secured No. 16 pick Isaiah Stewart and No. 19 pick Saddiq Bey. Both are under consideration for the NBA all-rookie team. He added Saben Lee, who was a second-round pick, in another trade while convincing Deividas Sivydis, who was acquired in a 2019 draft day trade, to finally come to Detroit.

“We got a lot of young guys with a lot of talent,” Pistons’ forward Jerami Grant said. “We got a lot of young guys that at the same time showed a lot. Going forward, we can only get better.”

Grant was another Weaver move that turned golden. He had a career year and topped the team in scoring after rebuffing a chance to return to Denver and signing with Detroit for three years at $60 million with a chance for a bigger role. Mason Plumlee, who also came over from Denver as a free agent, finished in double digits in scoring and topped the team in rebounding.

“It’s extremely important that we brought in the right people in the restoring because it’s gong to be hard to restore and dig ourselves out of this hole,” Weaver said. “Get us back to where we want to go and you have to look to the left and to the right and be really confident in the person next to you that we can get this done. So, getting the right people, with the right mindset, is everything in this restoration process.”

After a season-ending 120-107 loss to Miami on Sunday, only Houston (17-55) posted a worse record. Detroit now has a 14 per cent shot of securing the first-overall pick in the July NBA Draft. The lottery is next month and there’s an 80 per cent chance of Detroit landing somewhere in the top five and that gives Weaver another chance to add another valuable piece to his developing roster.

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“Hopefully someone we can add to the group and push us forward,” Weaver said. “I’m not looking for someone to come in an change the franchise. Wherever the chip falls, we’ll be excited.”

Dennis Smith Jr., another former first-round pick, and Hamidou Diallo, who both came over in trades this season, are restricted free agents along with Lee. Wayne Ellington and Frank Jackson will be unrestricted free agents, but Weaver said he wants to keep as much of this group together as possible.

“We like our group,” Weaver said. “I don’t anticipate much turnover at all; maybe one or two additions. It’s about internal development and growth. That’s our focus.”

Head coach Dwane Casey expects much of the current roster to stick around Detroit this summer and continue the progress.

“My first year in Toronto (in 2011-12) we won 23 games and everyone was, ‘Ah get rid of Casey, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,’” said the 64-year-old Casey, who signed a contract extension last week. “If I hadn’t been through that and continued to grow and develop the program there, I would be ready to jump off the building.

“I see the big picture. I understand the big picture. I have a grasp of the big picture. It takes time. It’s a process and, in our case, we had a group of talented young men. They have the individual talent, but collectively they’re not ready to win a lot of NBA games. I’m patient at my age, I understand it, and I see the big picture and the potential of what these young men could be. We’ll see if they continue to progress.”

jpparker@postmedia.com

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