Category: Detroit Pistons Blog

The Dallas Mavericks yesterday waived guard AJ Lawson, forward Emanuel Miller and center Jamarion Sharp.

Lawson appeared in three preseason games this season, averaging 4.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists through 11.7 minutes. Playing in all four preseason games, Sharp averaged 2.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 9.3 minutes. Miller played in three preseason games, including a, 11-point performance (4-5 FG, 3-3 FT) against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 7, 2024.

The Detroit Pistons announced today that Luke Walton, Sidney Lowe, Fred Vinson, Vitaly Potapenko, Kevin Burleson, Jerome Allen and Josh Estes have been named as assistant coaches to Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s coaching staff. Additionally, Jarett Jack and Steve Scalzi have been retained as assistant coaches.

Walton comes to Detroit after spending the last two seasons in Cleveland on Bickerstaff’s staff. Prior to Cleveland, Walton spent three seasons as head coach of the Sacramento Kings (2019-2022). Before leading the Kings, Walton served as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers from 2016-2019, improving the team’s win total in each of those seasons, including consecutive nine-game improvements in his first two seasons with the team (2016-17, 2017-18).

Before joining the Lakers, Walton was an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors from 2014-16, reaching the NBA Finals both years and winning the NBA Championship in 2015. He was named Western Conference Coach of the Month (October/November 2015) while serving as interim head coach in Steve Kerr’s absence and leading Golden State to a 39-4 start in 2015-16, including winning the first 24 games, an NBA record. Walton also served as a player development coach for the South Bay Lakers, the Lakers NBA G League affiliate, in 2013-14.

Walton played 10 NBA seasons with the Lakers and Cavaliers. He was the 32nd overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Lakers and was a member of back-to-back NBA Championship teams in 2009 and 2010. Prior to his professional career, he played collegiately at the University of Arizona where he was named an All-Pac-10 performer twice.

Walton is the son of the late NBA legend and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, Bill Walton.

Lowe returns to Detroit for his third stint, second as an assistant coach, after the previous three seasons as an assistant coach in Cleveland under Bickerstaff.

The Washington, D.C. native and former NBA point guard began his coaching career with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1992, as an assistant coach under Head Coach Jimmy Rodgers. He was promoted to head coach midway through the 1992-93 season and remained in the position through the 1993-94 season. Following five years as an assistant with Cleveland (1994-1999) and one with Minnesota (1999-2000), Lowe was named head coach of the Vancouver Grizzlies in 2000 and remained at the helm until 2002-03. He was the lead assistant to Head Coach Flip Saunders in Detroit during the 2005-06 season when the team advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Lowe served as head coach at his alma mater, North Carolina State (2006-11), where in his first season he became the third coach in school history to win 20 games and defeat the three other ACC North Carolina institutions (North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest). After coaching at NC State, Lowe returned to the NBA and spent three seasons as an assistant with the Utah Jazz (2011-2014) and two with the Washington Wizards (2016-2018).

Lowe was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the second round (25th overall) in the 1983 NBA Draft and played four seasons with Indiana, Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte and Minnesota. He also competed in the Continental Basketball Association, leading the Albany Patroons and Tampa Bay Thrillers to CBA titles. Lowe played his college basketball under the late Jim Valvano at North Carolina State, earning Final Four All-Tournament honors while helping lead the Wolfpack to the 1983 NCAA Championship.

Vinson joins the Pistons as an assistant coach after serving in the same role in New Orleans for the previous 14 seasons.

Vinson helped the Pelicans to four playoff appearances (one as the New Orleans Hornets) and served as the Pelicans’ 2019 NBA Summer League Head Coach in Las Vegas. A renowned shooting coach, Vinson helped the Pelicans to a top-11 3-point shooting percentage six times, including the fourth-highest rate in the NBA of 38.3% in 2023-24.

Prior to the Pelicans, Vinson was an assistant coach for the LA Clippers from 2007-10 and also served as the club’s director of player programs, where he was responsible for mentoring young players in their transition to the NBA.

Vinson played 13 seasons of professional basketball, including two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and Seattle SuperSonics. Additionally, he played in the United States Basketball League, Continental Basketball Association, American Basketball Association and with professional clubs in the Philippines, Israel, Venezuela, Poland and France. In 2003, Vinson was a member of the CBA Champion Yakima Sun Kings and was named a CBA All-Star that season.

Vinson played collegiately at Georgia Tech and was a three-year letterman for the Yellow Jackets. He also attended Chowan Junior College (North Carolina).

Potapenko joins the Pistons staff after six seasons as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Prior to joining the Grizzlies in 2018-19, Potapenko served five seasons (2013-18) as the assistant director of player development for the Cleveland Cavaliers, winners of the 2016 NBA Championship. In addition to serving as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers (2010-11), Potapenko had stints in the NBA G League with the Santa Cruz Warriors (2012-13), Dakota Wizards (2011-12) and Fort Wayne Mad Ants (209-10).

The 12th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, Potapenko appeared in 610 games (189 starts) with Boston, Cleveland, Seattle and Sacramento.

A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, Potapenko began his professional career in Ukraine before coming to the NBA and won two Ukrainian Championships with Budivelnyk. Potapenko played two seasons at Wright State University where he was twice named All-Midwestern Collegiate Conference (1995, 1996) and is a member of the school’s hall of fame.

Burleson comes to Detroit as an assistant coach after serving as the head coach of the Houston Rockets’ NBA G League affiliate, Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the last two seasons.

Previously, Burleson spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves after a stint as an assistant/player development coach with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018-19. In 2017-18, Burleson served as the associate head coach for the Iowa Wolves, the NBA’s G League affiliate of Timberwolves and spent three seasons as a player development coach for the Houston Rockets (2014-2017).

Burleson played four years, collegiately, at the University of Minnesota. He played two seasons in Germany before appearing in 39 games for the Charlotte Bobcats during the 2005-06 season. He later competed professionally in the NBA G League, Turkey, Romania and Egypt and won the Romanian League Championship with CSU Asesoft Ploiesti in 2010.

Allen rejoins the Pistons for his second stint as an assistant coach. Previously, he worked on Dwane Casey’s staff from 2021-23 and served as a pro personnel scout for the Boston Celtics during the 2023-24 season.

Prior to his first stint in Detroit, Allen spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Celtics and served the previous five years as the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania after one year as Penn’s interim head coach.

Born in Philadelphia, PA, Allen played collegiately at Penn and was a two-time Ivy League Player of the year. As a four-year starter, he led the Quakers to Ivy League titles in each of his last three seasons. He was drafted 49th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves and played in 117 career NBA games with Minnesota, Indiana and Denver. He also played professionally in Europe including France, Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey.

Estes joins the Pistons as an assistant coach after spending the previous four seasons (2020-24) as a coaching analyst and analytics coordinator in Cleveland under Bickerstaff. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Amherst College in 2019-20, where the Mammoths went 18-8 and made a semifinal run in the New England Small College Athletic Conference Championship. Estes spent the 2023 Canadian Elite Basketball League season as an assistant coach for the Brampton Honey Badgers.

The Detroit Pistons recently announced the finalization of their basketball leadership under President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon.

Michael Blackstone has been named Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations, Dennis Lindsey has been named Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations and George David has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Basketball Administration.

JR Holden returns to the Pistons, where he served in the front office from 2016-2018, as Vice President, Player Acquisition & Development, Greg Smith has been named Vice President, Player Health & Care and Eric Tellem has been promoted to Vice President, Player Personnel.

Additionally, former WNBA Champion Mistie Bass-Boyd joins the organization as Executive Director, Player Engagement & Basketball Operations, Marshall Smith joins the club as Executive Director, Basketball Strategy & Operations and Cory Schlesinger has joined the organization as Executive Director, Sports Performance. Gianluca Pascucci has joined the team as Senior Director, Global Scouting, Dwane Casey continues with the organization as Senior Advisor to Basketball Operations and Roderick “RJ” Hunter has joined the organization as Executive Assistant to the President of Basketball Operations.

Blackstone comes to Detroit after five years in New Orleans where he most recently served as vice president of basketball administration, assisting in player contracts and trade negotiations, administration of the salary cap and directing the basketball operations staff, strategy and implementation. Prior to joining the Pelicans, Blackstone spent time as a managing partner with Work Unfiltered, a consulting and training firm which provided negotiation, leadership, strategic planning and execution services. He also served as an assistant general manager for the Atlanta Hawks during the 2015-16 season, spent two-plus years with Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI) as Executive Vice President/Sports Practice Director and worked with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2010-13 as the team’s executive director of basketball operations.

Lindsey joins the Pistons with 28 years of front office and scouting experience, including most recently serving as Senior Advisor for the Dallas Mavericks during the 2023-24 season. Lindsey spent 11 seasons with the Utah Jazz, including two seasons as Executive Vice President of basketball operations, seven seasons as General Manager and two seasons as Senior Basketball Advisor. He also spent five seasons with San Antonio as the Spurs’ Vice President and Assistant General Manager. Lindsey began his NBA career with the Houston Rockets as video coordinator/scout in 1996 before being promoted to Director of Basketball Development, and later, Director of Player Personnel. In 2002, Lindsey was named the Rockets’ Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Personnel where he served until 2007.

David transitions to Senior Vice President of Basketball Administration after serving as associate general manager of the Pistons for the last two seasons and assistant general manager in 2021. David returned to Detroit after spending six years at Wasserman Media Group as Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations where he worked closely with numerous high-profile NBA players represented by the agency. In his first stint with Detroit, he served as assistant general manager with Detroit from 2012-14, after promotions from Director of Player Personnel (2007-12) and as Director of Scouting (2002-2007). David was first hired within the organization as video coordinator during the 1996-97 season.

Holden returns to Detroit for his second stint with organization. Most recently, he served two seasons as general manager of the Long Island Nets, the NBA’s G League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, after three previous seasons as the Nets’ director of pro personnel. Holden joined the Nets after spending the 2018-19 season as a college scout with the Philadelphia 76ers and four years with the Pistons as a college scout (2014-16) and the franchise’s director of international scouting (2016-18). He played professionally for 13 years (1998-2011), including nine years (2002-11) with CSKA Moscow, where he was a part of nine-straight Russian League championship teams. Holden played collegiately at Bucknell University for four years where he earned All-Patriot League First-Team honors in each of his last two seasons. He was inducted into the Bucknell Hall of Fame in 2008.

Greg Smith holds 20-plus years of athletic training experience in professional sports. Prior to joining Detroit, he co-founded Pivot Physical Therapy, one the largest out-patient physical therapy companies in the US with over 300 locations. He served as the Head Athletic Trainer of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League, a position he held from 1999 to 2017 after spending two seasons as Head Athletic Trainer with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Tellem was promoted to Vice President of Player Personnel after most recently serving as Senior Director of Player Personnel for the Pistons. Tellem joined the organization in 2016 after serving as Toronto’s G League Basketball Operations Manager for Raptors 905.

Bass-Boyd joins the Pistons’ organization after serving as the Director of Team and Athlete NBA/Grassroots Marketing for Nike Basketball’s Sports Marketing arm. She also spent time as an Assistant Product Line Manager with Nike Basketball Apparel before being promoted to Product Line Manager focused on Women’s Lifestyle Capsules and Collections in 2020. Bass-Boyd played in the WNBA and internationally from 2006-18, winning a WNBA Championship with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014. She attended Duke University, helping the Blue Devils to two Final Four Appearances during her collegiate career from 2002-06, and was named to the ACC All-Freshmen Team. During her collegiate career, the Blue Devils women’s basketball team won more games than any other four-year period in school history.

Marshall Smith comes to Detroit from the Los Angeles Clippers where he most recently served as Director of Basketball Strategy. He also worked as a Basketball Data Analyst with the Clippers from 2018-23. Smith graduated from the University of Portland in 2018 with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a focus in economics and math.

Schlesinger has over 15 years of sports performance coaching experience, including four at the NBA level and 10 in collegiate athletics. He most recently served as Assistant Coach, Director of Basketball Health and Performance for the men’s basketball program at The University of Texas. Prior to joining Texas, Schlesinger was the Director of Performance/Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns from 2019-23. He’s also held sports performance roles with Stanford University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Santa Clara University and Campbell University.

Pascucci joins the Pistons with 22-plus years of front office experience, including most recently as a scout for the Chicago Bulls. Prior to his time in Chicago, he held front office positions with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Brooklyn Nets, and Houston Rockets. Pascucci is a native of Pesaro, Italy.

Casey, who transitioned from head coach to a role in the basketball front office in 2023, begins his seventh season with the franchise. The former NBA Coach of the Year led the club to a 41-41 (.500) record during the 2018-19 season, setting a team record for most 3-pointers in franchise history (993) and their first NBA playoff appearance since 2015-16 season. The Pistons averaged 107.0 points per game that year, the most since 1987-88, and Blake Griffin was named to the 2018-19 NBA All-Star team and All-NBA Third Team.

Hunter joins the Pistons with over 10 years of experience, including most recently as the Men’s Basketball Director of Operations for Duke University from 2017-2024. In his time with Duke men’s basketball, the program captured an ACC Tournament title in 2023, an ACC regular-season title in 2022 and reached the Final Four that same season. Prior to his time at Duke, Hunter worked for University of the Pacific, USF Women’s Basketball and the Golden State Warriors. Hunter is a native of Little Rock, Ark., and obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and his master’s degree from San Francisco.

The Detroit Pistons announced yesterday that Trajan Langdon has been named President of Basketball Operations.

Langdon will report to Pistons owner Tom Gores and will expand the current team by recruiting additional innovative and experienced executives, with an emphasis on strategy, player personnel and operations.

“I have committed to building a front office in Detroit that brings together the most advanced capabilities and creative basketball minds,” said Gores. “Trajan is an accomplished front office executive with an impressive track record. He’s worked his way up and seen it all as a player, scout and executive. He’s been successful at every level. I’m confident he will very swiftly get us to the standard of excellence I expect from every business.”

Langdon, 48, joins the Pistons with 12 years of front office and scouting experience, including most recently as General Manager of the New Orleans Pelicans from 2019-2024. Prior to his time in New Orleans, Langdon served in front offices for the Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.

The Detroit Pistons announced today that General Manager Troy Weaver is leaving the organization.

“I very much appreciate all the dedication Troy displayed to our Pistons franchise,” said Pistons owner Tom Gores. “As much as we have struggled lately, we will look back and see Troy as an important person in the remaking of the Pistons. He took the pain of rebuilding head on and he did the hard work to get us the flexibility we have today. He also assembled a great core of young men with tremendous skill and character to give us a path to the future. Make no mistake, I have real appreciation for who Troy is as a person and what he has meant to the organization. I wish him the very best as he pursues his ventures.”

The decision was agreed upon mutually and comes after the Pistons recently appointed Trajan Langdon President of Basketball Operations.

The Detroit Pistons have signed guard Jaylen Nowell to a contract.

Nowell, 6-4, 201, signed a 10-day contract with Detroit on April 3. He’s appeared in three games with the Pistons and averaged 8.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 16.7 minutes per game.

A five-year NBA veteran, Nowell previously appeared in 193 career games (four starts) for Minnesota and Memphis. The No. 43 overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2019 NBA Draft, Nowell holds career averages of 8.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.5 steals in 17.1 minutes per game. Nowell appeared in nine games for the Grizzlies this season, averaging 5.7 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 17.1 minutes.

In 28 games this season with the Stockton Kings, the NBA’s G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings, Nowell is averaging 17.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 27.9 minutes per game.

A native of Seattle, Nowell played collegiately at the University of Washington from 2017-19 where he was named Pac-12 Player of the Year and First-Team All-Pac-12 for the Huskies in 2019.

The Detroit Pistons have signed guard Jaylen Nowell to a 10-day contract.

Nowell, 6-4, 201, is a five-year NBA veteran and has appeared in 193 career games (four starts) for Minnesota and Memphis. The No. 43 overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2019 NBA Draft, Nowell holds career averages of 8.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 0.5 steals in 17.1 minutes per game. Nowell appeared in nine games for the Grizzlies this season, averaging 5.7 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 17.3 minutes.

In 28 games this season with the Stockton Kings, the NBA’s G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings, Nowell is averaging 17.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 27.9 minutes per game.

A native of Seattle, Nowell played collegiately at the University of Washington from 2017-19 where he was named Pac-12 Player of the Year and First-Team All-Pac-12 for the Huskies in 2019.

Detroit Pistons guard/forward Stanley Umude will miss the remainder of the 2023-24 season with a hairline fracture of his right ankle which occurred in the third quarter vs. Indiana on Wednesday.

The injury will not require surgery and the team says that Umude is expected to make a full recovery.