Pistons GM Troy Weaver said newly-acquired center James Wiseman will get plenty of playing time, even though the team seemingly has an overload of bigs, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets.
“He needs to play,” the Pistons’ top executive said. “With your talent, if you don’t use it, you lose it. We need him to get back out there to use his talent and be confident as a player.”
Weaver also indicated the Pistons needed another quality big man to combat the top teams in the Eastern Conference, who have regularly pushed them around, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press tweets. “You don’t have a chance (without size). Point blank period. We need some men and some size,” he said. “We haven’t beaten those teams yet. If you look at those games, we’ve usually struggled on the glass.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Jordan Nwora, acquired from the Bucks on Thursday, will get an expanded look with Indiana, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “He got limited opportunities because of their veterans and guys who were in front of him just didn’t get injured that much. … This will be a great opportunity for him here,” Carlisle said. Nwora, who is expected to make his Pacers debut on Monday, is a player the Pacers have coveted for a while. “Nwora is a guy we’ve had interest in the last couple of years. … We were somewhere close to acquiring him but could never quite get there,” Carlisle said. (Twitter links).
- George Hill, who was also part of the giant four-team swap that sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix, doesn’t want to be waived by the Pacers, Dopirak adds in another tweet. GM Kevin Pritchard gave Hill the option of being on the 15-man roster or being waived and the veteran guard chose to stay in Indiana.
- Forward Jae Crowder wound up with the Bucks after the Suns-Nets blockbuster was expanded to include Milwaukee and Indiana. The Bucks have been trying to acquire him for quite a while and GM Jon Horst called the trade talks challenging, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm writes. “It was something we’ve been working on for a long time,” he said. “It was one of the most incredible, kind of challenging, pursuits of a player I’ve ever been a part of, to be honest with you. Different iterations and different things that happened. The Phoenix situation, and then all of a sudden he goes to a different team, and then it’s kind of back to the market.” Next, Milwaukee will have to figure out how to incorporate Crowder into the rotation. “We feel like we made a great add,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We’ll have to figure out how it all fits together.”
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