Lets Do It Again: The Detroit Pistons Head Coaching Search

May 25, 2013; Uncasville, CT, USA; New York Liberty head coach Bill Laimbeer watches from the sideline as they take on the Connecticut Sun during the second half at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Sun defeated New York 81-69. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Detroit Pistons are still searching for their next head coach. Since Larry Brown left Detroit in 2005 the Pistons will hire their fifth coach in the coming weeks. So will be the 33 head coach of the Detroit Pistons franchise? Several candidates are still in the mix to become the head coaching. Teaching and developing is very critical at this juncture of their careers for Brandon Knight and the Turnt up Twins (Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond) . For some this is getting to the stage of their careers where you reflect and label them according to their numbers, worth to the team, and players taken after them in the draft. I still cringe with regrettable displeasure about the 2003 NBA draft that saw us take Darko Millicic with the #2 pick over the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, or Chris Bosh. Ten years later and Piston fans are still venting their frustration over that one. Moving forward, we will look at the candidates and talks about strengths and weakness of each candidate and a few dark horses that maybe overlooked. The top candidates who have interviewed for the position are Adrian Griffin, Maurice Cheeks, and Nate McMillian. The dark horses are Bill Laimbeer and Brian Shaw.

Top Candidates

Maurice Mo Cheeks is currently an assistant coach at the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has previous head coaching jobs at Philadelphia 76ers and the Portland Trailblazers as well as being a player most notably with the 76ers over his 15 year NBA career. His strengths would be the fact that he can help out and develop the young guards especially the point guards and show them how to be a consummate professional. His weakness would be that in two separate head coaching stints his record is a combined 284-286 which is a .498 winning percentage and in three playoff appearances he has lost in the first round in all three.

Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Nate McMillian is a former NBA player and coach. His spent 12 year playing as a member of the Seattle Supersonics and has had his jersey number retired. He has 12 year of head coaching experience in the NBA for two different franchises. McMillian record while coaching the two franchises is 478-452 which is a .514 winning percentage and has taken teams to the playoffs in five of his twelve years as a head coach. He has also been an assistant on the Gold medal teams of the Beijing and London Olympics under Mike Krzyzewski. His strengths are teaches defense, fundamentals, accountability and will get the most out of his talents. Also in Portland the #1 pick in the 2007 draft Greg Oden rarely played due to injury, Brandon Roy was injured for a few of those seasons and he was still able to take them to the playoff in the final three full seasons. His weakness seems to be that he will be highly coveted by several NBA teams which may cause the Pistons to be forced to spend more money then maybe we should. Also he doesn’t really have a pedigree of producing big men which with the Turnt up Twins maybe essential to building this team.

Adrian Griffin is currently an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls. In his professional career spanning for 13 years Griffin is a journeyman playing basketball for thirteen different teams in numerous leagues from the NBA, CBA, USBL, and Italy. He spent eight years in NBA before becoming an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks before becoming the Bulls assistant. Griffin strengths are his close attention to detail and his unfathomable belief in defense setting the tone is reminiscent of the Detroit Bad Boy Pistons in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s. His weakness maybe that from a post-production standpoint he can help the Turnt up Twins take the next step specifically Andre Drummond?

Dark Horses

Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

Brian Shaw is a currently an assistant coach to the Indiana Pacers. He played professional basketball in the NBA and in Italy for 15 seasons with him most notably playing with Lakers thru the 2000-2002 seasons earning him three NBA championships during that span. His strengths are that he is a Phil Jackson disciple and will bring the triangle offense which for the Turnt up Twins might be one of the best offenses to run for them. He also teaches team defense and develops talent to play within the system. He will bring proper spacing and simplify the offense while bringing continuity to the team. Shaw weaknesses will be wait for him while the Indiana Pacers are still in the playoffs and with all the impending coaching vacancies can we get him to give us serious consideration.
Bill Laimbeer is currently a WNBA head coach and general manager for the New York Liberty in the WNBA. He played for the Detroit Pistons for most of his NBA career and was part of those great Detroit Pistons Bad Boy teams that lead the Pistons to the pinnacle of the NBA hemisphere with back to back championships in 1989-1990. His strengths are he will get the most out of your talent and teach tough hard noised aggressive defense. He will drastically improve the game of the Turnt up Twins as well the overall team. He won three WNBA championships as the head coach of the Detroit Shock. His weaknesses are he has never been a head coach of a NBA team even though he has been interviewed on a few different occasions. Also he has a lot of say with the New York Liberty roster being a general manager/coach and it might be hard to relinquish that just to be a head coach.

Bottom Line

All of these candidates have strength and weaknesses that the front office will have to consider before making a selection this will lead to player growth and development. Hopefully leading to a playoff berth and maybe a NBA championships. One thing is certain your head coach and their staff are pivotal in attaining stability, style of play, and gaining fan support. You can’t win a title with just a hire of a head coach but you sure can lose one.