Troy Weaver isn’t planning on hiring any bank robbers.
The Pistons’ general manager isn’t about to get mugged, either.
But he wouldn’t mind stealing another pick or player — or both — in tonight’s NBA Draft. And if he can get away with it, that’s exactly what he should do.
The Pistons hold the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, same as last year. And once again, there’s plenty of uncertainty about how the top half of the lottery will go. Maybe even more so this time around, with a clear-cut No. 1 choice in French phenom Victor Wembanyama headed to San Antonio, and two tiers of prospects behind him that draft analysts have struggled to reach a consensus about this spring.
“I thought last year people thought they had it pegged, and it didn’t go in order,” Weaver said Tuesday in his pre-draft media session. “So, honestly, there could be some shakeup. Maybe two through 10 doesn’t go according to plan.”
That’s why you have to plan accordingly, he says, and the Pistons claim they have, if only for their own safety and security.
“You just want to be ready,” Weaver added. “I mean, walking through the park at night, you gotta be ready. You never know what’s gonna come, you know? And draft night is that way.”
The way it went last year, Weaver and the Pistons walked out of the park with a pair of high-upside lottery picks in Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, following a flurry of draft-night phone calls and a convoluted, double-barrel trade involving Detroit, New York and Charlotte.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if Weaver takes a similar route this year. Outside of the 2021 draft, where the Pistons held the No. 1 pick and used it to select Cade Cunningham, Weaver has been as bold as any GM when it comes to wheeling and dealing in the first round. Same goes for his player evaluations, at least when it comes to on-court projections, not character concerns.
“If it’s, ‘OK, this guy can get you 18 rebounds … but he robs banks,’ no, we’re not taking that risk,” Weaver joked, before citing an example of the kind of gamble he is willing to take in the draft.
Back in 2013, when he was an assistant GM in Oklahoma City, the Thunder surprised many by using a lottery pick on center Steven Adams, a New Zealand native who’d averaged just 7.2 points and 6.3 rebounds as a college freshman at Pitt. But he went on to earn NBA All-Rookie honors and has been a starter in the league ever since.
“I like the long ball,” Weaver explained, opting for a baseball analogy to explain his front-office hoops philosophy, as he often does. “I’m not bunting, or trying to slap it into short-center. I’m gonna take a big swing, especially if I only have one chance at it. If I got three chances, OK, I might bunt one. But if I got one chance at it, I’m going for the big fly. That’s me.”
If he stays put at No. 5, he’ll have some high-flying options there, no doubt. The Pistons have brought in at least a half-dozen of the top prospects in for a closer look — the Thompson twins (Amen and Ausar), Jarace Walker, Cam Whitmore, Taylor Hendricks and Anthony Black — and all of them boast impressive physical traits.
Most mock drafts have Amen Thompson coming off the board to Houston at No. 4, but Ausar certainly would fit in Detroit as an athletic wing with elite defensive potential and legitimate secondary playmaking ability. And while questions about his outside shooting are valid, there aren’t any concerns about character or work ethic with either of the twin brothers from the Overtime Elite program.
Still, the larger point here is that there are other prospects that make sense for the Pistons, and that’s why the possibility of a trade-down scenario does as well. If there’s a chance to move back in the lottery — Indiana (No. 7) and Utah (No. 9) both own multiple first-round picks and still add a player like Hendricks or Walker, Weaver should take it. Adding another first-round pick could help Weaver make other trades, too.
The Pistons have some financial flexibility heading into a summer that’s already off to a wild start, with big names on the block and some (Bradley Beal) already ticketed for new cities. New head coach Monty Williams could use another veteran forward to help this young Pistons team figure out how to win games.
But first, they’d do well to maximize the value of a pick they earned by racking up more losses than any other team in the NBA in 2022-34. Just because the Pistons got robbed in the draft lottery doesn’t mean they still can’t come out ahead in the end.
“We feel good about the value of five, definitely,” Weaver said,. “And there’s been a lot of banter and talk back and forth on a lot of picks. … Do we like the players that we’ve been vetting out at five? Absolutely. But we’re still open to different opportunities as well.”
As well they should be.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo