Pharaoh wrote:Didn't mention Casey at all so we'll go with my "defence" of Weaver. The roster he inherited sucked! Was trapped in the middle, not good enough to make noise in the playoffs and not bad enough to get a high pick in the Draft. So he detonated it in every way imaginable!
The roster he inherited was every bit bad enough to be one of the worst teams in the league. He made it better in a meaningless fashion through his veteran acquisitions, transactions that will serve the Pistons no purpose while torpedoing cap flexibility and presenting barriers to the youth.
I don't actually agree with every move and have stated so repeatedly despite so many ignoring those posts and claiming I only defend the FO and ignore:
Stetching Dedmon in order to sign Plumlee
Stetching Smith in order to sign Ellington
He stretched both of those players for the purpose of signing Grant and Plumlee, a duo toward which he effectively allocated $96.7 million against the cap over the next three seasons. For comparison's sake, they'll count against the cap for about as much as Anthony Davis next season. For no reason.
Signing Grant wasn't ever a thought for me after the Draft and because I didn't expect him to leave a contender for us! I'll let that play out though before I endlessly complain about it simply because he chose to bet on himself and I can respect that choice...until it messes up our situation in some way.
He's occupying a large chunk of cap space that could have been used toward purposes more conducive for a rebuild, he'll eat minutes that could otherwise go to prospects, his presence gives Casey yet another veteran to play ahead of the youth, and he'll be munching usage thanks to Weaver's promise. He came to Detroit because Weaver was willing to dramatically overpay him
and promise him the opportunity for a major role, an equation in which the potential benefit for the Pistons remains unclear.
After free agency so many on here jumped to the conclusion that we were once again trying to compete for the last seeds and fulfill the Gores playoff mandate again.
I think the greater sentiment was that what Weaver did made very little sense in any capacity.
I stated at the time I disagreed and instead we were actually racing to the bottom of the East. Time will tell on that but so far so good.
While this roster will likely be bad, Weaver did not need to dump buckets of cash onto Plumlee and Grant in order to make it so. It was every bit bad enough (see: even worse) before his bizarre, costly free-agency extravaganza.
Weaver came here to build a team, a organisation. So many are so quick to judge him as a GM based on 1 off-season! I find that hilarious on so many levels.
Weaver came into the organization and, in his first offseason, made a series of utterly bizarre decisions that cost the Pistons a great deal of cap flexibility for no apparent gain and built a bizarre roster that will not best befit the youth development upon which this team's future depends. And that denunciation leaves aside the mistakes he made in the draft.
The course for the offseason, the first in a rebuild, was clear: acquire more assets in the draft, take fliers on underappreciated, underdeveloped, or untapped talent, sign some low-cost veterans to round out the roster and provide stability, maximally emphasize development, and maintain flexibility with which to make moves to acquire more assets. Weaver chose instead to take a rocketship to Mars. Does he have a vision? Sure. Does it make sense? Debatable. Is he competent? Entirely unclear, but I don't think it's looking good.
To be honest, I'm surprised to see you so wholeheartedly dedicate your confidence to Weaver after you did the very same with Van Gundy only to be confronted as was everyone else with the ultimate revelation that he was actually incompetent, and that his many decisions which appeared to make little sense appeared so because they genuinely did make little sense. But to each one's own.
