The Troy Weaver era is over for the Detroit Pistons.

A source confirmed with the Free Press on Friday the team intends to part ways with the much-maligned general manager after four unsuccessful years.

The move is not all that shocking after the team announced almost immediately after the season they intended to hire a president of basketball operations that would work overtop of Weaver, which of course caused many to wonder what that meant for Weaver's long-term future.

After years of middling and struggling to break through the middle of the pack, Weaver quickly committed to a full rebuild for the franchise, but instead labeled it as a "restore."

Sometimes you have to go to the bottom of the NBA standings to reset and pick up some assets, but what was supposed to be a short stop on the ground floor turned into an unstoppable descent. The Pistons never won more than 23 games under Weaver, including just 17 wins in 2022-23 and a franchise-worst mark of 14-68 this past season, rubber-stamped by a 28-game losing streak.

With that amount of losing, there are a lot of issues you can point to, but here are the five areas where things went wrong for the Pistons under Weaver.

Honorable mention: Bad lottery luck

This speaks for itself. If Victor Wembanyama was with the Pistons right now, it's safe to say that Weaver still has a job.

It's not to say Weaver and the Pistons had all bad luck. They did land the No. 1 overall pick (Cade Cunningham) after Weaver's first year in charge, but after that, it was all downhill. The team dropped from third to fifth in 2022 and then from first to fifth (the furthest possible drop) in each of the last two seasons. In 2024's starless draft, it wasn't as painful, but losing out on the chance to take Wembanyama (a generational star) or even Brandon Miller out of Alabama or Scoot Henderson from the G Leauge really dampened the outlook.

No. 5: Going big

In a league increasingly built around guard and wing play, Weaver decided to swerve. It didn't work.

Weaver traded serious capital to add Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren in separate draft-day moves. Early signs from both players have been positive, but as a duo, they simply don't complement each other enough.

In addition, Weaver traded Josh Jackson, Trey Lyles and multiple second-round picks to add former No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley III. After signing him to a long-term deal, Weaver traded him to the Washington Wizards for pennies on the dollar. Weaver also acquired James Wiseman, another former No. 2 overall pick, sending Sadiq Bey out the door in favor of adding more size.

It all led to a jumbled frontcourt to start the 2023-24 season. The Pistons lost 28 of the first 30 games. The rest is history.

No. 4: Not going big enough

Last offseason, the Pistons were coming off a dreadful 17-win campaign, but most of that was chalked up to the incredibly costly injury to Cunningham, who played just 12 games. But things seemed to be turning in the right direction. The Pistons landed Ausar Thompson in the draft and his athleticism seemed to fill a hole on defense. The Pistons had some cap space, too.

But instead of adding talented players or spending the money, Weaver decided to punt. He absorbed the contract of Joe Harris for two weak second-round picks. He added point guard Monte Morris, who is a solid player, but not a needle-mover. Instead of moving one of the aforementioned big guys for a player that fits better, he ran it back. The results were dire.

No. 3: Trade misses

Over four seasons, there isn't one trade under Weaver that you can point to as an unbridled success. Early on, the team sent away useful players like Luke Kennard and Bruce Brown. Smart moves Weaver made, like signing Jerami Grant or trading for Bogdan Bogdanovich and Alec Burks when their value was low, were undermined by minimal returns or missed opportunities.

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Big swings Weaver took on players like Hamidou Diallo, Wiseman, Bagley, or Dennis Smith Jr. never panned out. This past deadline, Weaver brought in useful players like Simone Fontecchio and Quentin Grimes, but due to injuries, we barely got to see their fit with the current team.

This can be broken down in a million different ways, but putting it simply, the players Weaver targeted were simply misses.

No. 2: Monty mistake

In a lot of ways, it feels like Weaver's tenure fell apart in the final year. On paper, it looks like it's been heading this way for years. But expectations are everything. No one thought the Pistons would win in the first two years under Weaver, and certainly no one thought they would once Cunningham went down. But there needed to be material growth in the win-and-loss columns in 2023-24, and Monty Williams was supposed to be the man to help with that.

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It quickly became clear Williams had zero feel for the roster Weaver had assembled. Jaden Ivey, the team's fifth pick in 2022 and a key building block, was cast aside for much of the first half of the season. Cunningham, even though he was far from the biggest problem, had no room to operate and struggled with turning the ball over. Williams inexplicably seemed deadset on starting Hayes, despite the wonky fit alongside Thompson, Stewart and Duren.

Any season when you lose 82.9% of your games feels like a disappointment, but the lack of development across the roster made 2023-24 seem even more like a lost season and ultimately sank Weaver's ship.

No. 1: Draft whiffs

The Pistons made their choice clear: they wanted to build through the draft. For a small market team, that makes sense. The problem is what the team did with the picks they had.

The first mistake many will point to was Weaver's first pick. In 2020, the Pistons selected Killian Hayes with the No. 7 pick. He averaged just 8.1 points and 4.9 assists and never shot over 30% from 3-point range. The team waived him after he made 31 starts this year, and he still hasn't been signed by any team.

Including draft night trades, Weaver made eight first-round picks over his four drafts (Hayes, Stewart, Bey, Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Duren, Thompson, Marcus Sasser). Outside of Hayes, all of those players look to be at least NBA-level players. But none of them seemed to complement each other in any material way. The group lacks blue-chip talent outside of Cunningham, who we haven't seen enough of because of injuries.

Yes, some of this can be chalked up to where the Pistons picked. But when you have three top-five picks and eight total first-rounders, you simply have to do better.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons GM Troy Weaver: 5 biggest mistakes in horrible tenure