The Detroit Pistons have ended their search for a general manager. When the Pistons fired Jeff Bower in 2018, Ed Stefanski assumed the responsibilities without the official title. Since then, Detroit was the only team in the league without a GM. Despite Stefanski making sound decisions for the franchise since 2018 -- hiring Dwane Casey as coach being one of them -- the Pistons decided it was time to find someone to actually fill the position and help them through their rebuild.
That search ended Thursday morning when the Pistons finalized a deal with Troy Weaver to become the franchise's 19th general manager. Weaver will sign a four-year deal with Detroit, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Prior to being hired by Detroit, Weaver was the vice president of basketball operations with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and becomes the fourth OKC executive under Sam Presti to get a general manager position with a different franchise. Weaver also becomes just the ninth black general manager in the NBA, and the second hired in the past month as the Bulls recently hired former 76ers executive Mark Eversley as their new GM.
"It's an honor for me to join a franchise with the history and tradition of the Detroit Pistons," Weaver said in a statement. "I'm excited for the challenge of building this team into a consistent winner and assembling the pieces to compete at a very high level. We'll get to work right away, evaluating opportunities and installing systems that will make us all successful."
Weaver's path to becoming the Pistons' first black general manager is a lengthy one. Before becoming an NBA executive, Weaver helmed one of the most prominent AAU basketball programs in the country -- DC Assault -- where the team won a national championship in 1996. From there, he became an assistant coach with Syracuse University, where his recruitment of future star Carmelo Anthony led the Orangemen to a national title in 2003. After spending several years at the collegiate level, Weaver made the jump to the pros, where he first spent time as a head scout for the Utah Jazz, before becoming the director of player personnel for the team.
In 2008, Presti hired Weaver to join the Thunder's front office, where he rose through the ranks to eventually become the vice president of basketball operations. Weaver's history of player personnel has come up big for the Thunder on multiple occasions, most notably, his scouting of Russell Westbrook, which led to OKC drafting the future MVP with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.
