Pistons to hire Trajan Langdon as president of basketball ops: Sources

After an extensive, weeks-long search that featured over a dozen candidates, the Detroit Pistons are finalizing a deal to make Trajan Langdon president of basketball operations, league and team sources confirmed to The Athletic on Thursday.

After a franchise- and NBA-worst 14-68 record this past season, Pistons owner Tom Gores made the choice to shake up the organization’s infrastructure by filling a role that had been vacant since 2018, the organization’s top decision-maker.

In hiring Langdon, he will have the final call on all basketball decisions, as well as have the option to move on from both general manager Troy Weaver and head coach Monty Williams, who signed a massive six-year, $76 million contract (with incentives) last summer.

Langdon, the general manager for the New Orleans Pelicans, has been with the organization since 2019. Before that, he was the assistant general manager with the Brooklyn Nets for three years. Langdon also scouted for the San Antonio Spurs from 2012 to 2015.

The Pelicans’ success as of late has wavered based on the availability of Zion Williamson, but this New Orleans team has done a great job of identifying young talent — look at Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones — and has one of the more stacked wing groups in the NBA, an area in which Detroit has lacked for many years.

The Pelicans also have been active on the trade market since Langdon has been there, adding the likes of CJ McCollum and Jonas Valančiūnas.

Detroit used the search firm, Turnkey, to help gather some potential candidates, and while that process presented Gores with several worthy names, it was Langdon and Dennis Lindsey who were the finalists. Both candidates met with Gores several times over the last few weeks — both virtually and in person — before a decision was made, league sources tell The Athletic.

“The Pistons felt Langdon was very thoughtful during interviews and had well-rounded ideas that really caught the attention of ownership,” team sources said.

Even with several key decisions still looming and the 2024 NBA Draft a month away, the Pistons didn’t want to rush the process despite the time crunch, per team sources.

After this disastrous season and a rebuild that just finished its fourth year with very little progress to speak of, it was important for Gores to make sure he pinpointed who he felt would not only be the perfect person to get the organization out of this current rut, but also be able to put together a product that was successful and sustainable going forward.

To do that, Langdon will have to step in right away and make critical decisions. The first thing on the checklist is to determine if Langdon wants to keep Weaver, who is still under contract, as general manager.

The second thing will be determining if Williams is the best coach for this team moving forward. Third, Langdon will have to figure out if the organization should use the No. 5 pick in next month’s draft to try to add more unknown potential to a roster that already has a ton of it or trade the pick for a player or players that can be impactful immediately.

For Langdon, deciding the futures of both Weaver and Williams will have to come relatively soon.

Weaver, who has been the team’s general manager since 2020, was given the tough task of getting the Pistons’ rebuild off the ground, despite having very limited assets to work with upon arriving. Weaver’s scouting and talent evaluation is what drew Detroit to him, even all the way back to 2018 after the franchise parted was Stan Van Gundy.

Weaver’s drafting in the Motor City has been solid. He was able to get promising prospects like Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson without having top-three picks, but there are questions as to how all of their skill sets will mesh with Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in 2021, who looks to be the franchise’s cornerstone piece for the foreseeable future.

He even landed NBA role players like Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey outside the lottery. However, two seasons ago, Weaver traded Bey for James Wiseman, the No. 2 pick in 2020, and added another young, project center to a roster that already has several. Weaver also drafted Killian Hayes No. 7 overall in 2020. Hayes has been out of the NBA since the Pistons waived him earlier this year.

Ultimately, though, the roster construction under Weaver has been the biggest issue. Detroit has relied on too much youth and hasn’t had pieces that fit well together over the last few seasons. Detroit has won just 31 games the last two years combined and had a historic 28-game losing streak that ended back in December.

As for Williams, deciding his future will be the most challenging. Last summer, Gores elected to bypass the candidates the front office brought to the table – Charles Lee and Kevin Ollie – and decided to make Williams one of the highest-paid coaches in NBA history just weeks after he was fired by the Phoenix Suns.

This is what Williams said about why he took the Detroit job at his introductory news conference last offseason:

“The quick answer is (Weaver), the players and the money. That’s something people don’t talk about. They say it wasn’t the money. I laugh at that. I think it’s disrespectful. … When someone is that generous to pay me that type of money, for one, it should be applauded and, two, it should be talked about. …I like the process of building. I like seeing players get better. I like seeing a guy for the first time understand what it takes to navigate crunchtime situations. These jobs are privileges, and there are only 30 of them, and I look at it that way.”

Williams didn’t have the best roster to work with this season, as it was very young, hit with injuries and lacked shooting and defense, but a similar roster coached by Dwane Casey in 2022-23 – but without Cunningham for all but 12 games due to injury and eyes fixated on landing Victor Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA Draft – won 17 games. Everyone, from top to bottom, is to blame for last year’s disaster.

Detroit’s head coach has about $60 million remaining on his contract, and sources tell The Athletic that Gores will eat the rest of the money if the new president of basketball operations decides he wants to bring in someone else to walk the sideline. 

If it seems like Langdon will be walking directly into a house on fire, it’s because he will be. However, the resources are there to control the flames. The Pistons have a top-five pick, over $64 million in cap space, Cunningham and a few other young prospects with upside who could develop into something more or be traded for more proven commodities.

This situation is fixable, and that’s what Langdon will be expected to do with the job.

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(Photo: Matthew Hinton / USA Today)