Auf Wiedersehen!: Michael Curry Experiment Is Over In Detroit

I honestly contemplated giving this article the title "Curry Ousted, and God's Existence Proven in One Fell Swoop", but I figured this would be just a little bit hyperbolic.

But only a little bit.

This move makes sense on a number of levels, from making Detroit a more appealing venue for free agents to giving Rip Hamilton and his ilk a fresh sense of relief after a tough season to the obvious level of getting rid of a ego-maniacal, shockingly unready inexperienced coach.

Above all, this move should make you love Joe Dumars. 

Dumars, though under fire lately in Michigan, is still thought of as one of the best general managers in all of sports.  He built a winner out of spare parts and turned around a once proud franchise in a matter of months, not years. 

Although Dumars appeared to have the Midas touch early on, he has been on a bit of a losing streak lately, from the Darko debacle to the Curry hiring to the Chauncey Billups stinker. 

It has been a tough couple of years for Dumars, and this year has been the worst.  Not only have his basketball moves blown up in his face, but he lost in the same calender year his two longtime mentors, former head coach Chuck Daly and owner William Davidson.

The reason you should love Dumars is not because of the mistakes he has made, but rather, how he has dealt with those mistakes.

He made a mistake by drafting Darko Milicic, but once he realized what a huge mistake it had become, he cut his losses and traded Milicic for a mid-first round pick that turned out to be point guard Rodney Stuckey.  While Stuckey struggled in his second season, most basketball people agree that he has a world of potential.

Dumars made a mistake last year involving Billups; the mistake wasn't the fact that he dealt Billups, the mistake was that he received Allen Iverson in the trade.  At the time, Dumars thought that Iverson would give the Pistons a new and different way to win by finally having a dependable scorer.

Obviously, we all know how poorly that decision panned out.  However, Dumars realized he had made a mistake, and he is not going to bring back Iverson and as a consolation, he has an additional $12 million to spend on free agents (although the news that Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer are staying in Utah definitely hurt).

This move is the perfect example of this pragmatic approach to decision assessment. 

His hire of Michael Curry was definitely a gamble; Curry had never been a head coach at any level and only had one year as an assistant coach. 

But Curry was always regarded as a kind of coach on the court, and was known as a very cerebral player.  Additionally, he has a masters degree and was a former president of the NBPA, the league's union.

However, Curry proved to be in way over his head, and one particular encounter with a player doomed his fate and offered a glimpse into his world as a coach.

After acquiring Iverson, Curry initially experimented with a three guard lineup in which Stuckey, Iverson and Rip Hamilton all played together, with Tayshaun Prince being shifted to power forward. 

This lineup was a train wreck, and resulted in terrible defensive possessions and even worse offense.  Curry proved to be unable or unwilling to adjust his game plan to utilize Iverson, and essentially each player took turns playing one-on-five.

After a few weeks, Curry finally switched up the lineup, but instead of moving Iverson, the obvious one year rental, to the bench, he moved Hamilton, who had just signed a contract extension. 

Essentially, Hamilton was being punished for being loyal to his team.  Additionally, he was dealing with losing his best friend on the team, Billups, as well as his position.  To a proud person like Hamilton, this was unbearable.

But that wasn't the worst part of this ordeal.  The worst part was that Curry did not notify Hamilton of his new role in private.  Instead, as a showing of ego and bravado, he notified Hamilton of the move in front of the entire team.

This ambush crushed Hamilton, and while he could have handled himself better, led to Curry slowly but surely losing the respect of his players.

It did not take a genius to see that the Pistons essentially quit on their coach, and the season fell apart as a result.

Heading into this season, you would think that Curry would be in a hurry to patch up his relationship with Hamilton, right?

Of course not.  Curry, in his final showing of bravado, let it be known that he was in no hurry to repair his relationship with his star player.

The rest, of course, is history.

And so too, now, is Curry.

The question now, is who is going to replace him. 

If I know Dumars (and given my, and everyone else's inability to predict his actions it is safe to say nobody does), it is safe to say that Dumars will not again hire an inexperienced coach. 

There will be no Bill Laimbeer (although there is a strong chance he will land here as an assistant coach) or Mark Jackson.  Instead, look for Dumars to take a long look at Avery Johnson, Jeff VanGundy and even Doug Collins.

So will this new move be enough to land a top notch free agent and bring Detroit back to the promised land?  We will know the answer soon enough. 

One thing is for sure, Dumars took a gamble, and once again knew when to cut his losses.

The question now is whether his bosses will do the same.