So Troy Weaver didn’t take the free agent swing so many wanted last weekend.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Not two weeks ago he said he wanted to see what kind of team he had first.
That may sound ridiculous considering he’s the general manager of the Detroit Pistons and he put the roster together and he has run the franchise the last three-plus years. He should know what kind of team he has, right?
Well, yes, he should, and he does, and what he knows is this: His team is young; and his most talented player missed almost all of last season. Which means that while he’s supposed to know what he has by title, it’s hard to be a soothsayer, even if he’s paid to be one, when the most critical piece to your roster is missing.
Cade Cunningham was missing. Now he’s back — almost.
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The effect his absence had on the rebuild can’t be overstated enough. Primarily because Weaver is banking on Cunningham not only to run his team on the floor, but to connect all of its pieces. And without him, about all Weaver could evaluate a season ago was individual progression.
Some players — Jaden Ivey — showed a lot, others — Jalen Duren — showed close to a lot, yet others — Isaiah Stewart — showed a little and some — James Wiseman — showed not much of anything other than imaginary potential.
But how are all of them going to look with Cunningham? With the veterans? This is what Weaver doesn’t know yet. This is what Weaver must see first, which makes any $100 million bet a blind one.
Think of it this way, the Pistons opening night starters this fall, barring injury or trade, will likely be Cunningham, Ivey, Stewart, Duren and Bojan Bogdanovic. As of the moment, those are the team’s five best players. Because of youth and injury, they didn’t start a single game together last season.
Even if Bogdanovic gets traded eventually, or Stewart can’t build on the 3-point potential he flashed last winter, and Monty Williams put Marvin Bagley III or Isaiah Livers or even Ausar Thompson in the starting lineup, the franchise still has little idea what Cunningham, Ivey and Duren look like on the floor together.
They can hope. They can dream. They can approximate, imagine and even model on a computer, but until it’s flesh and sweat, it doesn’t mean much.
Cam Johnson wouldn’t have interfered with those three’s development. The Nets forward is mostly a catch-and-shoot player who moves the ball along and defends. He’s a role player, though.
And at $100 million, which is what the Nets gave him to keep him (as a restricted free agent), he would’ve been a gamble at that money if the young trio doesn’t work. More critically, he might’ve gotten in the way of Thompson’s minutes down the road.
Now, you can argue that Johnson and Thompson could’ve filled the forward spots at some point, but then that hurts the flexibility if Weaver and Williams wanted a bigger player at one of the forward spots.
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Either way, signing Johnson, if he even wanted to be a Piston, would’ve been a gamble. The same is true of Kyle Kuzma, who just re-upped with the Washington Wizards for north of $100 million.
At some point, Weaver will have to take a gamble in free agency, or through a trade. Yet he didn’t have to or need to right now. By trading for Joe Harris and Monte Morris, he gave himself time, and options down the road.
He could trade either next season. He can let them walk at the end of the season and depending on other moves, might free up almost double the $30 million in cap space he had this offseason.
Logically, it makes sense, because he doesn’t know quite yet exactly what he needs around his core players. That may be frustrating for some long-suffering fans who are tired of the wait-until-next-year approach.
But this is a rebuild, period. And it was considerably slowed last season when Cunningham was lost to a leg injury.
Johnson or Kuzma or even, say, Harrison Barnes, weren’t going to speed up the rebuild by any great measure. Sure, all three may have helped with a few more wins next season. And as critical as it is to get Players 4-9 right on a roster, those players on the margins don’t matter unless a core is settled.
This core is not settled. We don’t know what it is. Heck, the Pistons don’t know what it is.
If Cunningham and Ivey and Duren don’t pop, then none of this matters anyway and someone else will be assembling the next core. What Weaver did know for certain this offseason is that his team needed more shooting, and a veteran guard to buffet his young backcourt with a little more scoring.
Harris should help with shooting.
He doesn’t defend like Johnson, or attack closeouts or rebound like him, either. He’s a reliable floor-spacer, though, as is Morris.
Both should help Cunningham and Ivey without interfering. And both could be off the books in a year.
By then, Weaver and Williams and everyone else in the basketball offices should have a much better idea of what kind of potential their young players possess. That was the goal of the offseason.
If they show signs of turning into the players Weaver hopes they can be, then he just set himself up for more building next summer.
For a team that just won 17 games, that’s about all you can ask.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.