Detroit Pistons Management: Too Many Chefs in the Kitchen?

Perhaps new owner Tom Gores isn't leaning as heavily on team president Joe Dumars as we were led to believe.

According to a report by ESPN's Marc Stein, Gores has hired Dave Checketts as an adviser as he looks to find his first head coach.

Checketts has a long and distinguished career in the NBA, becoming a general manager with Utah at the age of 28 and leading them to the playoffs in each of his six years there. After Utah, he worked for the league before taking a similar position with New York in 1991.

If you remember, the most successful stint for New York over the last two decades was his four years there, when they made the playoffs each year and even visited the Finals once.

Checketts pivoted from that position into running Madison Square Garden and all of its properties, including Radio City Music Hall. He also is involved with some sports franchises, including Real Salt Lake soccer club.

So why exactly is Checketts being brought into the mix?

At this point, all speculation surrounds the new coaching hire. Checketts is being brought in to help find a new coach.

Of course, the real story here is how this affects Dumars.

Since taking over as team president, Dumars has had carte blanche in all basketball decisions. Former owner Bill Davidson loved Dumars and trusted him implicitly. There were only a few occasions when the owner overruled Dumars, and that usually involved coaches.

But overall, Dumars has been the only hand on the wheel for the last decade.

Now, all of a sudden, a man that has had Dumars position in the past with some success is being consulted.

Not coincidentally, this also comes at a time when a new coaching candidate has entered the mix in Detroit: Patrick Ewing.

So what is the connection? Ewing just so happened to be the franchise player for Checketts Knicks.

Now, I'm sure that Dumars and Gores will come out and say that they just wanted another person in on the hunt for a coach, and that Dumars' job is not affected.

But that is absolute rubbish.

The real story, in my opinion, is that Gores was underwhelmed by Dumars' coaching choices, and Checketts sounded a red flag. Actually, he probably sounded multiple red flags.

Why exactly were the top two candidates for this job, Mike Woodson and Bill Laimbeer, both former Detroit people?

Shouldn't the Pistons look to a broader pool of candidates?

Wouldn't each of those two guys essentially be puppets of Dumars?

What if Dumars isn't the right answer at general manager? Then wouldn't you be stuck with both of them and their contracts?

And what exactly has Dumars proven as a coach hunter? Michael Curry? John Kuester? Flip Saunders?

Now this is all just speculation, but from Gores and Checketts perspective, why would they just hand over all of the power to Dumars considering all of the trouble he has had over the last few years?

In my estimation, Checketts is the ultimate insurance policy for Gores. He wants this franchise to succeed, and while he likes Dumars and respects him, he also wants a second opinion.

From the fans perspective, this is a good thing. It means we have an owner that is so desperate to succeed that he is tapping all options to get this hire right.

From Dumars' perspective, this is disastrous and could signal the beginning of the end of his reign in Detroit.

Now as far as Ewing is concerned, I am not overly thrilled about him as coach. He wasn't an overly cerebral player, and wasn't exactly the consummate winner and competitor that Laimbeer was. And while he has done an admirable job working with big men Yao Ming and Dwight Howard, he is not as experienced as Woodson.

Ewing will no doubt get a shot to be a coach, but I don't want that first gig to be in Detroit.