Christian Wood didn’t want to leave Detroit

[sfballa13]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/krt5kv/spears_the_pistons_were_interested_in_resigning/

So it's now pretty much confirmed in multiple articles, Spears is pretty reputable.

Woods wanted to stay and we only offered him 8M

We turned around and pay Delon Wright 9M, Plumlee 8M, and Grant 20M

This combined with the Haliburton miss, terrible stretchings/trades/cap work should be an instant firing for Weaver

A lot of noise is made about the Knicks and the Suns and other supposedly "terribly run" franchises but the Detroit Pistons are simply pathetic and have been since 2009, really sad to see

[buzzkilloton]

Pay plumlee and wright rather then wood fools.

[buzzkilloton]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/krt5kv/spears_the_pistons_were_interested_in_resigning/

So it's now pretty much confirmed in multiple articles, Spears is pretty reputable.

Woods wanted to stay and we only offered him 8M

We turned around and pay Delon Wright 9M, Plumlee 8M, and Grant 20M

This combined with the Haliburton miss, terrible stretchings/trades/cap work should be an instant firing for Weaver

A lot of noise is made about the Knicks and the Suns and other supposedly "terribly run" franchises but the Detroit Pistons are simply pathetic and have been since 2009, really sad to see

Oh other teams fans make fun of how terribly were ran. Just many pistons fans ignore it and act like every move is good until 100% proven fail then they move on to backing the next bad move.

[thesack12]

Yeah, this isn't nearly as complicated as some are trying to make it out to be. Detroit and Weaver just flat out muffed up here.

Its been blatantly obvious to anyone with eyes and the most basic of basketball awareness that Wood is a really, really good player who's skillset is perfect for today's game.

Even if you flat out hate Wood's guts for whatever reason, you simply sign him to an extension. Showcase him the beginning of this season in which he obviously would shine, then you trade him off to the highest bidder.

Weaver was blind to the notion of asset retention here, and even more blind to what retaining that asset could later become not too far down the line. Asset recognition/retention sure seems to be a weakness of Weaver thus far.

[Wallace_Wallace]

Watching Christian Wood way back he played for UNLV. His long journey to become a good player has been appreciated by a lot of the fans in Vegas.

With that being said, our GM and his research team should resign. Plumlee and Wright (both older and never impacted their teams) do not worth the same or more than Wood.

[Invictus88]

I still believe there was more to letting him go than basketball skills.

While you can argue he was largely unproven it was obvious to everyone he could put up big numbers when given the chance.

As a rebuilding team, lacking big men we decide to low ball him?

And the prevailing opinion is that our FO is as dumb as a box of hammers?

Gotta think the "character" side of things was why he wasn't wanted.

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My take, and the last I’ll say on this particular subject, is that I’ll never assume I know more than guys who made a career out of doing a job I’ve never done. Yes, it’s disappointing to see an organization take players over someone like Donovan Mitchell when a lot of Joe Blows on this board wanted him, and rightfully so (especially since he has a great last name ) But that wasn’t Weaver. And no one cried that Weaver was a bad hire yet now call him incompetent solely because he didn’t re-sign Wood. Weaver clearly made some good picks and the results are clearly positive; if you can’t see the core of a good team forming I don’t know what to tell you because it’s clearly there IMO. Once again, yes, I really liked Wood and I would have liked to see him stick around. But I’m definitely going to give the benefit of the doubt to someone who has a lot more experience building a good NBA team than I do.

Nothing regarding behavioral issues in Detroit has been mentioned. So unless you know something that isn't public then this is an exercise of inventing a reason to justify an action that otherwise constitutes stupidity.

I'm just commenting on the facts that I see:
1. Wood is currently playing at a high level that can and was predicted by his previous play in Detroit.
2. Wood ended up signing a contract that was *very* reasonably priced for the production he demonstrated he could provide.
3. Wood spent an entire year in Detroit and there were no stories or rumblings of behavioral issues.
4. Wood was reported to have been low-balled by Detroit with an offer of only 8 million dollars to stay. Echoed by a few sources.

I'm perfectly happy to jump on the thought train that we dumped him because he was a bad apple; but there has to be at least some solid indication that that was actually the case.

Otherwise all evidence points to the most plausible scenario: That Weaver and other management was actually that stupid in their dealings with/evaluation of him.

[Play007]

For the record, Spears edited the article and took out the $8 million part.
There are a lot of speculation and we may never know exactly what went down in the negotiation.
The fact is Pistons FO did a poor job in the last 10 years. Tons of past transactions proved that.

This is what I like about NOW:
A new gm in the summer means ownership is committed to make a change.
Several new rookies in the team.
Good result from the FA signing so far - Grant, Jackson, and Plumlee.
Team is fun to watch.
Great chance to land top 5 in upcoming draft.

As far as Wood's signing goes, yeah it sucks that we could not retain him but lets just move on. The end goal is for the team to be playoff contender in 3-5 years. I care more about team success in the future not a single signing that may or may not relate to that.
Not signing Wood is set in stone and I dont think anything is gonna change that. Lets focus on what we have in the team.

[ByeByeDre]

Another fact:

Weaver spent over $100 million on Plumlee, Grant and two other bigs that we stretched rather than $40 million on Wood.

Why? Wood’s not his guy.

If I was Sekou, I wouldn’t go buying any green bananas

[MotownMadness]

OMG **** Christian Wood at this point. I wanted him and he would still be here if it were up to me but hes not so let it go in my opinion

[vic]

As I said over a month ago...

the only way Troy Weaver will live this obviously horrible decision down (it was horrible to anybody with a basketball IQ before we even knew all the facts) is to bring a championship to Detroit.

If he's such a genius that he can lowball a super talented unicorn scoring stretch big that blocks shots and rebounds, AND be smart enough to avoid retaining him as a reasonably priced asset to entice an extra top 10 pick (which is Wood's obvious talent level).

Then he needs to bring a championship. He'll never live this down otherwise.

I too have been following Wood since UNLV and its amazing that such a talent level dropped into the Pistons lap at his perfect timing of maturity and productivity... and we fumbled.

Like everybody else invested in his development, and we get the asset, shine it up, and toss it in the trash for someone else to pick up. This is mindbogglingly dumb.

And I don't want to hear any garbage about Wood not having Piston DNA. As I said over 4 months ago:

- Pistons won 3 championship with cast-off players that didn't fit anywhere else but blossomed here. Troy just threw away Piston dna.
- Pistons won 3 championships with stretch bigs (Laimbeer/Rasheed Wallace). Pistons invented the stretch big. Troy just threw away Piston dna.

No matter how positive you wanna be there's no way to paint this in a positive light, its just a loss, and a stupid decision that Troy Weaver has to own, and then bounce back from.

[edmunder_prc]

Rose
Jackson
Bey
Grant
Wood

Thats is plenty of offense. Every guy can score on his own.

Probably a fringe playoff team in the East though and this is the year to get a #1 pick.

[tmorgan]

I’m not buying into Wood being a big enough douchebag that we didn’t want him around.

The only rational thing I can think of that isn’t Weaver screwed up is that we KNEW he was good, too good, and the plan was to tank. Given how hard this team plays and how competitive we’ve generally been, replacing Plumlee and Okafor with Wood and whatever could actually lead to five or more additional wins and a much lower pick.

Not saying I agree with the rationale, but it’s either that or Weaver just blew it.

[Pharaoh]

Based on what we've seen from the majority of our new additions I think it's safe to say Weaver didn't blow it but knew Wood would ruin the tank.

These next 2 Drafts are apparently loaded and in order to win big you gotta have high end talent.

Stewart, Grant, Sekou, Bey, Jackson, Svi, Hayes, Lee = not high end talent but 2 years is a long time to develop them.

You add Cade or Suggs or someone of that calibre in 2021 Who knows what will happen?

I’m not buying into Wood being a big enough douchebag that we didn’t want him around.

The only rational thing I can think of that isn’t Weaver screwed up is that we KNEW he was good, too good, and the plan was to tank. Given how hard this team plays and how competitive we’ve generally been, replacing Plumlee and Okafor with Wood and whatever could actually lead to five or more additional wins and a much lower pick.

Not saying I agree with the rationale, but it’s either that or Weaver just blew it.

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[tmorgan]

Based on what we've seen from the majority of our new additions I think it's safe to say Weaver didn't blow it but knew Wood would ruin the tank.

These next 2 Drafts are apparently loaded and in order to win big you gotta have high end talent.

Stewart, Grant, Sekou, Bey, Jackson, Svi, Hayes, Lee = not high end talent but 2 years is a long time to develop them.

You add Cade or Suggs or someone of that calibre in 2021 Who knows what will happen?

Seems like a stretch, but if it works out, it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not.

[Pharaoh]

Think it's far more reasonable to assume that he didn't come here with zero idea of what he was doing

All those years in OKC, all those months between when he was hired to when he could actually start making moves?

You think he just walked in one day with little or no prep work? For his first shot as a GM?

If his tenure here is short it's possible he has to wait years for another chance as a GM!

All the cap gymnastics weren't required, we didn't need to sign Grant and Plumlee, didn't need to stretch Dedmon and Smith, didn't even need to deal Brown & Luke considering their contract situations...

But he did all that

I'd like to think it's by design

Based on what we've seen from the majority of our new additions I think it's safe to say Weaver didn't blow it but knew Wood would ruin the tank.

These next 2 Drafts are apparently loaded and in order to win big you gotta have high end talent.

Stewart, Grant, Sekou, Bey, Jackson, Svi, Hayes, Lee = not high end talent but 2 years is a long time to develop them.

You add Cade or Suggs or someone of that calibre in 2021 Who knows what will happen?

Seems like a stretch, but if it works out, it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not.

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[DetroitSho]

I’m not buying into Wood being a big enough douchebag that we didn’t want him around.

The only rational thing I can think of that isn’t Weaver screwed up is that we KNEW he was good, too good, and the plan was to tank. Given how hard this team plays and how competitive we’ve generally been, replacing Plumlee and Okafor with Wood and whatever could actually lead to five or more additional wins and a much lower pick.

Not saying I agree with the rationale, but it’s either that or Weaver just blew it.

If I remember right, the Pistons won like 1 game the rest of the season after the Drummond trade with Wood getting big minutes. Yeah he's not derailing a tank.

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[MrBigShot]

If he was worried Wood would ruin the tank then why sign Grant & Plumlee? Two fairly seasoned NBA players ready to contribute from day 1, and in Grant's case ripe for an opportunity to take on a bigger role offensively than in Denver.

We literally did this same song and dance when Wood went on insta and said there was more to the story but people shrugged it off. Maybe Weaver just straight up lowballed Wood because he underestimated how talented he is.

[MotownMadness]

If he was worried Wood would ruin the tank then why sign Grant & Plumlee? Two fairly seasoned NBA players ready to contribute from day 1, and in Grant's case ripe for an opportunity to take on a bigger role offensively than in Denver.

We literally did this same song and dance when Wood went on insta and said there was more to the story but people shrugged it off. Maybe Weaver just straight up lowballed Wood because he underestimated how talented he is.

I want to hear Woods side of this. I don't buy for a minute he would actually want to stay here. I've lived here my whole life and there's no way someone with no ties and the opportunity to go anywhere would want a rebuilding cold nothing to do Detroit.

It shouldn't be that hard to say "I want to stay" instead it's been nothing but social media cryptic messages he wants out. Which makes sense cause he had zero ties to some rebuilding team like us without a big overpay (which I would have done).

[Pharaoh]

So in your opinion it's more likely Weaver didn't think Wood was talented enough to keep as opposed to Wood choosing a better location to play ball?

Given his salary it's likely he had multiple offers but wanted Houston due to Westbrook and Harden (at the time).

Think it's possible his agent did a good job and ultimately got Wood included in the Draft Day deal we'd already arranged.

That way we can claim we got some kind of asset for losing our guy while the Rockets can argue they worked the cap well and landed a quality free agent despite not having cap room.

Idk, maybe it's just me but I'd like to think our FO is no longer dumb af and out of tune with the rest of the league.

If he was worried Wood would ruin the tank then why sign Grant & Plumlee? Two fairly seasoned NBA players ready to contribute from day 1, and in Grant's case ripe for an opportunity to take on a bigger role offensively than in Denver.

We literally did this same song and dance when Wood went on insta and said there was more to the story but people shrugged it off. Maybe Weaver just straight up lowballed Wood because he underestimated how talented he is.

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[thesack12]

Man, some of y'all are really reaching to try and rationalize this thing.

If Weaver didn't want Wood around because he'd "ruin the tank" why the hell make him an offer at all? Also, even if you choose to believe that theory, its still an incredible blunder of asset recognition/management. Again, if you don't want him around you simply trade him away for assets when he's first eligible to be traded on February 6th. At which point Wood will have only been around "ruining the tank" for 24 games.

By the way, if you think a guy is worth 3 years/$60 mil all the while concerned with somebody "ruining the tank" you might want to reconsider what you valuations should be to merit such a contract.

Secondly, I will start off saying that in this day and age if there were overly concerning character issues associated with Wood its highly likely that something would have came to the surface publicly by now. Still even if you want to assume character reasons were the reason Wood was not wanted by Weaver, again why offer him any type of contract? And again, even if thats what you choose to believe just like the above situation, its still a blunder of asset recognition/management. If he's a bad apple, you sign him to an extension, then just trade him 2 months later. So you recoup value/assets just for having to deal with Wood's alleged toxic character for 2 more months.

Troy valued Mason Plumlee and Grant more than Christian Wood both monetarily and on the court purposes. Which is scary enough, but when you consider he invited Detroit's best asset to walk away for nothing all the while doing multiple ridiculous salary cap gymnastics just to sign the 2 other guys to the contracts they got, its just asinine.