Why Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores is backing Troy Weaver after NBA trade deadline frenzy
LOS ANGELES — Tom Gores, for the first time this season, had a reason to project some positivity while discussing his team.
He sat courtside Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena as the Detroit Pistons led the star-laden Los Angeles Clippers at halftime, 58-49, before losing the lead in the fourth quarter of a 112-106 defeat.
The Pistons are an NBA-worst 8-44. Yet after a 2-29 start to the season and NBA record 28-game losing streak, they have won four of their past nine and are 5-8 since a Jan. 14 trade that sent Marvin Bagley III and Isaiah Livers to Washington for Mike Muscala and the recently waived Danilo Gallinari.
The front office stayed aggressive ahead of Thursday's 3 p.m. trade deadline, adding six new faces in Simone Fontecchio, Troy Brown Jr., Shake Milton, Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier and Malachi Flynn.
General manager Troy Weaver projected confidence as he addressed the media Friday morning. Gores followed a similar tune, throwing his support behind Weaver despite the Pistons' historic losing this season in Year 4 of his tenure.
Here's what Gores said Saturday. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
What was the idea behind the deadline moves?
"We needed to mix up our formation. We had to let a few of our players go, all good men. Bojan (Bogdanovic) and (Alec) Burks contributed a lot to our Pistons. We just needed to change it up a bit and create some more pace-and-space for our young guys. As you know from Troy, we were at it working all last week, so we just needed to, for the sake of the team, let the young guys fly free."
How involved were you after you were public about your desire for change?
"Almost every day. The first month after that, I did a lot of it on a couple days of zooms and calls and all that stuff. Over the last 10 days, the team will tell you, Troy will tell you, we had a lot of all-nighters and up really late just making sure we make the right decision for this team. It’s a pivotal moment and you have to know when it’s pivotal. For us, it was important to get the right makeup and I thought we made pretty good moves. We also have a lot of cap space now in the summer, and we gained some good players."
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Where is your confidence level in Troy, and the front office as a whole?
"I think we just came together and the first thing we did is take accountability for the mistakes we made. As an organization, you really can’t go forward until you acknowledge what didn’t work. That was the first thing. And being honest about that provides you the future. If you don’t look in your past for a little bit and what was right and what was wrong, it’s very hard to go to the future. We did that along the process. I have confidence in Troy. I have confidence. We leaned on each other through this process, but we also didn’t avoid the idea of what were we accountable for? It gave us a pathway to go forward."
Did you make moves with the expectation some of the players will stick beyond this season?
"This is just the beginning, and it’s our responsibility to do this. We have to learn from what didn’t work, so we have to take that forward now. As I told the team and front office and everyone else that if we don’t win from our losses, then what are we doing? We have to be better because of our losses, and that’s our opportunity."
Does this season give you more data points going forward because you know what this team needs now?
"One of the data points is seeing how everybody reacts in tough times. I learned a lot about them, they learned a lot about me, because in life it’s just the same. Until you hit those hard times you never know how somebody’s gonna react. One of the things I learned is that they reacted well. I saw who reacted well and then showed the heart, and all of us didn’t like that time. But we fought, and they’re fighting tonight and I’m really proud of them."
What qualifies as a successful finish for the remainder of the season?
"To compete like we are tonight, for the young group to grow and for us to make progress so we can set ourselves up for an amazing year next year. We have to deliver and I’m all over it in terms of the details. I would say competing like we are tonight is a great start. And winning the last two games is pretty good, too."
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What have you learned about coach Monty Williams during this process?
"Same thing. He’s got a stomach for pain and we’re all accountable. He’s open to listening to all kinds of things. This process of pain, sometimes gets you to another place. He’s listening, I’m listening, and we all have to."
How tough has it been with Earl Cureton passing away?
"Earl is such a beautiful, positive person. Just knowing Earl personally, he completely loved his daughter, which he was always by her side and he loved his family. We lost a great spirit in Earl for us. He’d text me almost every week, even when I was down. 'How are you doing, TG?' He would always check in and he cared about people, and the thing he would always say to me when I saw him before we left, is I’d do anything for you. That’s just the kind of guy. So we miss him and I know a lot of people do."
[ MUST LISTEN: Trade deadline reaction show, below. Make "The Pistons Pulse" your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify). ]
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores backs Troy Weaver: 'I have confidence'
