The man with(out) a (big man) plan

I have to ask… can anyone tell me what, exactly, Troy Weaver and the Detroit Pistons are doing with their frontcourt? I have looked through and catalogued all the moves Weaver has made at the power forward and center positions since taking over the job in 2020 and I just cannot for the life of me figure out what the plan is here.

Seriously, here’s the list:

• Drafted Isaiah Stewart (16th, 2020)

• Sign-and-traded Christian Wood to Houston

• Signed Mason Plumlee (3 years, $24.7M)

• Signed Jahlil Okafor (2 years, $4M)

• Bought out Blake Griffin

• Traded Plumlee to Charlotte (salary dump)

• Drafted Luka Garza (52nd, 2021)

• Signed Kelly Olynyk (3 years,$37M)

• Signed Trey Lyles (2 years, $5M)

• Traded Okafor (and Sekou Doumbouya) to Brooklyn for DeAndre Jordan and 4 second-round picks

• Bought out Jordan

• Traded Lyles (and Josh Jackson, and a second-round pick) for Marvin Bagley

• Re-signed Bagley (3 years, $37M)

• Traded into first round for Jalen Duren (13th, 2022)

• Traded for Nerlens Noel (and Alec Burks)

• Traded Olynyk (and Saben Lee) for Bojan Bogdanovic

• Traded for James Wiseman (Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox)

• Bought out Noel

• Extended Stewart (4 years, $64M)

The Pistons are left with a quarter of big men for the 2023-24 season consisting of Stewart, Bagley, Duren, and Wiseman. Each of them individually has his merits — some (Stewart, Duren) more than others (Bagley, Wiseman). But can any of them actually play together? The sample sizes are small, but none are all that encouraging unless you buy into the 27 minutes of Stewart-Wiseman we saw toward the tail end of last season.

PBPStats.com