(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
That left Kuester and Thibodeau. Kuester has history with the Pistons winning a championship as Larry Brown's main assistant. He also was Brown's assistant during Brown's 76ers era.
Not only that, but Kuester has a 19 years coaching experience in the NBA. Yes, that was as an assistant, but that's still time served. Johnson only had four years experience total as a coach, 3.2 years as a head coach and .8 as an assistant (numbers not exact). Curry for those who want to compare had one year as an assistant and one as head coach.
My point is Kuester has been around the block, plus he is a good x's and o's guy. He boosted the Cavaliers offense significantly in all categories. Granted the Cavaliers did add Mo Williams but I doubt his 17 points and 4 assists per game was the real reason for jumping so many other teams in offensive potency.
Honestly, I didn't know much about Kuester before the hire but the more I hear the more I like.
That brings us to the free agency acquisitions. Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva both agreed to sign with the Pistons on the first day of free agency when Detroit had no coach.
In case you didn't catch that last part THEY HAD NO COACH, and yet these top tier free agents had enough faith in Dumars to agree to deals without talking to anyone else.
That is incredible.
Besides the good faith in Dumars' ability, these players are going to bring a whole heap of talent to this team.
The combo of Stuckey driving to the basket for a lay-up only to kick it out to Gordon or Chucky V. for a smooth trey is going to be a great sight compared to the bricks we were throwing up last year from beyond the arc.
That three-point shooting is also going to do a lot more than put three points on the board, it's going to force defenders off the double teams which should open up clearer paths to the basket. We didn't get that benefit last year.
Gordon has only been in the league for five years, but already he is shooting a higher career three point percentage than Reggie Miller, 41.5% to 39.5%. On top of that, he is a 20 point per game scorer.
He might be a defensive liability considering he is only about 6" 2' in shoes. With Stuckey being 6" 5', we can mitigate some of that by having him guard the taller shooting guards leaving Gordon to the point guards.
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