Pistons fire Flip Saunders
June 3, 2008 by James Edwards
Filed under Detroit Pistons
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
Flip Saunders is told by the Detroit Pistons Joe Dumars to take his ball and go home
Image details: Detroit Pistons v Boston Celtics - Game Five served by picapp.com
Who will be the next coach of the Detroit Pistons?
Saturday Joe Dumars spoke to Flip about his final year. All decisions have to go through the owner Bill Davidson. Evidently Bill sees what my good friend RonB pointed out to me, “good thing the Pistons did not go to the finals or Flip would get a five year hiring extension”.
In other words, Flip was not the coach to take them all the way! (So it would be a problem if he made the finals and lost.)
Does not matter, as of Tuesday, Flip Saunders is fired.
President of basketball operations Joe Dumars said it’s “time for a new voice to lead our team.” Saunders had a year left on a four-year deal he signed in 2005. The decision comes three years after Saunders took over for Larry Brown, who led the Pistons to two straight NBA finals.
“Decisions like this are difficult to make, especially with the success we have had throughout the last three regular seasons,” Dumars said in a statement. “However, at this time, I feel it is necessary to make a change.”
It is odd only because Joe Dumars has raised the bar so high.
In Saunders’ three seasons, the Pistons were 176-70 in the regular season and 30-21 in the postseason, but they lost in the Eastern Conference finals each year.
The Pistons have appeared in six straight conference finals, the first franchise to do so since the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. But they also are the second team in league history to lose in the round before the NBA finals three years in a row, joining the Celtics from 1953-55.
So who will be the next coach?
Assistant coach Michael Curry appears to be the leading candidate to replace Saunders. Other possible candidates include Detroit assistant coach Terry Porter and former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson.
Hmm, Michael Curry - no head coach experience.
Terry Porter - Losing record with Milwaukee Bucks.
Avery Johnson - could not keep Houston Rockets motivated.
Can this be it?
Time for a Joe D miracle!
As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.
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*Avery Johnson could not keep Dallas Mavs motivated*
Anyways, which ever coach Duuumars brings in, they will struggle to coexist with Sheed. So Joe must shake things up and break up the foursome that has clearly become complacent.
All signs point to Rasheed.