Report: Former Michigan, Cavs HC John Beilein to Join Pistons Front Office

The Detroit Pistons have reportedly hired former Michigan Wolverines and Cleveland Cavaliers basketball coach John Beilein to the role of Senior Advisor Player Development, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Stein added that Beilein was a "frequent presence at Pistons games this season."

Beilein, 68, most famously coached the Michigan men's basketball team between 2007-19, leading the Wolverines to nine NCAA tournament appearances, two regular season Big Ten titles, two Big Ten conference titles and two Final Four appearances. 

Previously he also coached Canisius (1992-97), Richmond (1997-02) and West Virginia (2002-07). In his college coaching career he went 571-325. 

In the 2019-20 season he made the jump to the Cleveland Cavaliers, though things went sour quickly, as he coached just 54 games (14-40) before resigning.  

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported at the time that Beilein "struggled to connect with NBA players" and that the "plight of some previous coaches who made the leap to the NBA also befell Beilein: players quickly tuning him out with his penchant for screaming, and believing that Beilein was treating them as young, college athletes, not as professionals."

In Detroit, he'll join a young Pistons team building around players like Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey, Killian Hayes and Sekou Doumbouya.

The Pistons also have a 14 percent chance of landing the top overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft and a 52.1 percent chance of holding a top-four pick, a very valuable commodity in a year with a group of five players (Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green, Jalen Suggs and Jonathan Kuminga, in no particular order) considered to be the cream of the crop.