The Pistons Offseason So Far

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As expected, there have been major changes to the Detroit Pistons this summer. Just like clockwork, there have also been portions of the blogging community that have glanced at the situation and shrieked failure.

First off, it is way too early to tell how truly successful Joe Dumars has been in the off-season, but for the sake of balance I would like to present a counter viewpoint to all the negativity surrounding this off-season.

Let’s start with the coaching fiasco. After having a disappointing season, Michael Curry was fired one day before free agency began. In all honesty, I believe the firing was justified but Curry was not given a fair shake. That’s another article in itself.

Then Dumars began his search for a new head coach, publicly stating he wanted a coach with experience. Very early on the media pegged three candidates that Dumars was contemplating: Doug Collins, Avery Johnson, and John Kuester. Later Tom Thibodeau was added to the list.

Some report that the first choice was Collins. I have also heard accounts that Collins was never a serious candidate and pulled out early to save face.

He might not have been a serious candidate because besides being known as a perpetual burn out, he apparently broke down in front of his Pistons team that included Dumars as a player. 

Granted that was over 10 years ago and Collins might have matured his coaching ability since then. When asked about the possibility of Collins coming to Detroit when Dumars first took over as GM supposedly Joe just rolled his eyes.

I was never sold on Collins, while he might be an offensive guru he has a repeated history as being more trouble in the locker room than Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson. To me that doesn’t sound like someone I would want to mentor such a young team like the Pistons.

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