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On the 94WIP Morning Show on Thursday, Jay Wright discussed the time he almost became the 76ers’ head coach during Ed Stefanski’s tenure as general manager from 2007-11. “As close as I had ever been,” Wright said. “It was classic Philly. Ed lived about five minutes from me, right here in Wayne. I went over to his house, he had hoagies cut up. ... Only in Philly is that your interview for a head coaching job. I knew him really well, I trusted him. I can’t remember, we had just gone to a final eight or something, or had some success, and I just thought, the Sixers had a good team. If I’m ever going to do this — which every basketball coach wants to coach in the NBA — this would be the time to do it.”
“As I thought about it, I thought, ‘You go to the NBA, you’re probably going to get fired in three to four years anyway, just the way it happens in the NBA.’ And then what would I want to do when I get fired? Well, I probably would want to go back to coach college, and I just thought, ‘Well I’m here.’ There’s no guarantee you can get another good college job after you get fired, so why would I do that?”
After the 2016-17 season, they had a long conversation about whether Brown should enter the NBA draft as a one-and-done or return to school. The verdict: Brown wanted to improve his handles and point guard skills. Detroit Pistons executive Ed Stefanski scouted a Miami practice the next season. Brown had gotten out his slump, but now he was out for the year. While he was sidelined for a broken foot during Stefanski’s visit, Larrañaga advocated for his injured star. “I don’t know if Bruce will get to the second round,” he remembers saying, “but if he does, you guys have a couple of second-round picks. This guy is going to be really, really good, and his best position in the NBA is likely to be the point guard position.”
“We want to be aggressive and if the opportunity is there, talking to Troy and Tom and Arn and Ed, we want to be opportunistic if something presents itself,” Casey said. “We never want to turn away from that. We want to be smart. We want to build something that’s going to last and will be consistent, will be sustainable, with our cap space. As I tell my kids all the time, 'don’t let the money burn your pockets.' "
James Edwards III: Dwane Casey on draft: "It's a very deep point-guard draft. But I agree with what Ed and Troy have talked about ... best player available. ... We'll take the best player available and hopefully fulfill that other need in free agency."
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Stefanski and his staff were able to keep the Pistons afloat, navigating through the salary cap and staying away from the luxury tax. They also added a couple of young pieces in the draft and through shrewd trades to buoy their future hopes. “Ed has come in and done a great job of stabilizing our front office and cleaning some things up,” team owner Tom Gores said this week. “We just felt it was time to go big or go home. Let’s just go get the best. We have a great coach ready to go. Dwane (Casey) and Troy have a great chemistry that they’ve built — that was important to me.”
When Gores targeted Weaver, it was with the understanding that he would fit within the existing structure and utilize the experience and feedback from the key stakeholders. Weaver brings the eye for talent, but working with the other key pieces helps to solidify everything and ensure everyone is going in the same direction. “There’ll be a nice divide-and-conquer coming in and again that's why I trust Troy to come in as someone smart enough to leverage resources,” Gores said. “At a high level, we’ll work all this out in the detail. Really, Troy, and Ed and Dwane will work on a day-to-day basis with each other, and Troy will have normal — and even higher than normal — GM responsibilities and he’s got a lot to learn. He’s going to get on the ground and know each player well and connect with (Casey) and so on and then as it bubbles up to ownership, Arn and I — if there's big decisions that need to be made — we’ll all gather.”
With Weaver in place, the Pistons could have a more traditional structure for the first time since 2018, with plenty of input from the other involved parties. It meant making room for Weaver’s expertise and agreeing to work collaboratively to make it work. “They all had reasons not to like this, because we're bringing in a very powerful person in Troy,” Gores said. “Troy's got a lot of responsibility and power in this team. I'm just really happy that he's going to leverage all the resources, but at the end of the day, I think Troy will work with Ed on a day-to-day basis and coach, and as things bubble up that need Arn and I, obviously we'll, you know, we'll step in there.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Ed Stefanski on draft pick: "Troy is terrific at what he's done and we're fortunate to get him. He's the guy; he's the GM. I have to imagine that was intriguing to him."
Rod Beard: #Pistons Ed Stefanski on front office structure: "I see myself as the senior adviser to Tom Gores...I'm all about winning. We all have egos."
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Malik Rose leaving Pistons
Stefan Bondy: Detroit assistant GM Malik Rose is leaving the organization to take a job with the NBA, according to multiple sources. The Pistons are searching for a new GM to work with Ed Stefanski.
Vincent Goodwill: Ed Stefanski will remain at the top of basketball operations for the Pistons, if they hire a GM, a source tells Yahoo Sports. Pistons have been quietly vetting candidates since before the league shutdown, according to sources. @Adrian Wojnarowski first on official news of search
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