When I evaluate presidents' decisions, when I evaluated supervisee lawyers' decisions, the question I ask is, "Was it reasonable?" You can't always be right, after all, there is an other side that is trying make you wrong at every turn, so the question is always was it reasonable in light of all known facts.
Tewfiq Georgious' decisions have landed his Detroit "Pistons" in the wrongest place in the history of the National Basketball Association. Every one, and in combination has yielded a catastrophic result in a results business. And Georgious has been crucified for them and for it. "Equity hedge fund manager": a newbie, clueless amateur, an owner who throws the only thing he knows, money, at problems. "Sell the team."
I have looked at Georgious' decisions by the principle in the first paragraph. I expected to find an absentee owner breaking his new toy.
I didn't find that.
I found a local Detroit guy, born and raised and made good who has invested, beyond basketball, in his hometown community.
I found a guy who is not a newbie owner but one who has been principal owner since 2015.
I found a guy who did throw money at his franchise, but on people proven to be exceptional team builders.
In 2020 Georgious hired Troy Weaver away from Oklahoma City to be "Pistons" General Manager. The OKC operation was then, is now, and long has been led by Sam Presti who has established the template for constantly reworking and remaking a team in a mid-market to be competitive.
“(Weaver) had all the track record and everything on his resume that made complete sense. We had actually tried to talk to Troy a couple years ago and Oklahoma City wasn’t quite ready to let him go, so he’s been on our radar for a while,” Gores said.
“We just felt it was time to go big or go home — let’s just go get the best. We have a great coach ready to go and Dwane (Casey) [then, and until Monty Williams became available, "Pistons" head coach.] and Troy have a great chemistry they’ve built.”
Weaver:
“I just felt like I looked at where the Pistons were at this time, trying to surge forward and become a competitive team again. I’ve been in those situations, when I first went to Utah after (John) Stockton and (Karl) Malone, Utah was trying to restore their franchise and I was a part of that,” Weaver said. “My last 12 years in OKC, we just built it from the ground up. My skills and my talents and leadership and training I’ve had with the Jazz and Thunder actually made this a great fit for myself and thank God the Pistons saw it the same way.”
“The Pistons could not have found a better person to lead and direct their franchise.”—Sam Presti
They finished the season at 20-46 and will have a likely top-five draft pick and possibly $30 million in salary-cap space when the offseason hits in October.
Cap space is indeed what Presti has prioritized in Oklahoma City, but...a little differently than what Weaver's plan is in Detroit. Presti always prioritized draft picks; that preserves cap space for sure, but the plan in OKC is to hit on draft picks and use the rookie-scale wages to keep them when they hit; if not, trade them when they hit for more draft picks. Weaver has had more hits than misses in the draft. Presti's plan was never to lure LeBron James to Oklahoma City. But that is Weaver's plan, and Weaver has taken major hits for it:
When I read that, I laughed a contemptuous laugh to myself. Who would trade for any of these "Pistons"?! Their bench has maybe two legitimate NBA players.
Exactly!
Since becoming GM that .303 season the "Pistons" under Weaver have fallen from .303 to .278, .280, .207, and so far this season .069.
In a word, the "Pistons" under Georgious and Weaver have failed. So when I read the Weaver Plan I concluded that this Nightmare Before Christmas is on Troy Weaver.
