Pistons Rumors: Ime Udoka, Charles Lee Among Candidates to Replace Dwane Casey as HC

With Sunday's announcement of Dwane Casey stepping down as coach of the Detroit Pistons, the rumor mill has already started with who can possibly be his replacement in the Motor City.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that there are several early candidates for the job, including former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka, Milwaukee Bucks' assistant Charles Lee, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin and Heat assistant Chris Quinn.

General manager Troy Weaver also plans on interviewing Chicago assistant Josh Longstaff and the Nets' Brian Keefe, per Wojnarowski. Weaver worked with both while in Oklahoma City as assistant general manager.

Casey plans to move into Detroit's front office going forward.

The 65-year-old announced that he was stepping down from his post following the Pistons' regular-season finale against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. He served as the team's head coach for the past five years but never had a winning season.

This past season was the worst of his tenure as Detroit had the worst record in the league at 17-65 and ended up losing 23 of its final 25 games.

Despite the rough season, the opening may be the most desirable of the offseason as the Pistons have a nice, talented, young core that includes former No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and James Wiseman.

And with the worst record in the league, the Pistons have a great chance at landing the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft to select generational prospect Victor Wembanyama.

Of all the early candidates, Udoka is obviously the most recognizable after he helped lead the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first season at the helm, seemingly becoming one of the best young coaches in the league.

He was officially fired by the organization in February but didn't coach the team all year after it was found that Udoka violated the teams policies. It was reported that he used "crude language in his dialogue with a female subordinate prior to the start of an improper workplace relationship with the woman."

Udoka was rumored to be up for the Brooklyn Nets' job after the organization let go of Steve Nash earlier in the season.