Van Gundy Out The Door

**401don** · May-07-18, 12:39 PM

Team clearly needed to start over. Sort of like Avila with the Tigers, the new guy will be stuck with a badly overpaid roster. Losing the 1st round pick only makes things worse.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...ways/34656935/

**Cincinnati_Kid** · May-07-18, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by 401don

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...ways/34656935/

Team clearly needed to start over. Sort of like Avila with the Tigers, the new guy will be stuck with a badly overpaid roster. Losing the 1st round pick only makes things worse.

SVG mortgaged the future, and now he's gone and will land with his "Golden Parachute" back to Fla. Now someone else has to come in, and clean up the do-do. We've been rebuilding since 09. What a joke this once proud franchise is.

**Smirnoff** · May-07-18, 02:17 PM

In worst shape since he was hired, leash was wayyyyy too long, too much power w/tumultuous results. We could have had so many solid players.....fans, culture, excitement, stability, identity gone.

**EGrant** · May-07-18, 02:47 PM

This is a very unattractive job for potential GMs. No first rounder this season, and a ton of salary tied up in Drummond and Blake for the near future. Not a ton you can do with that roster, unless some team is dumb enough to take Blake in a trade.

Pistons haven't even been rebuilding for the past 10 years, they've been stuck in the middle of making mistake after mistake trying to make the playoffs. They've been stuck overpaying for past-prime guys in a desperate attempt to reach their ceiling of the fourth seed in the East at best.

**Hypestyles** · May-07-18, 02:51 PM

who are the candidates- from the pro world and even the college world.

**Zads07** · May-07-18, 02:58 PM

Hire Becky Hammond as the head coach

**ABetterDetroit** · May-07-18, 05:16 PM

Becky Hammon.

They need lightning in a bottle and she brings that possibility to the table.

Why not? It can’t get worse at this point.

**EGrant** · May-07-18, 07:12 PM

Mike Budenholzer seems to be getting the most attention as a possibility. Also Jay Wright from Villanova, but why would he leave that situation to come to the Pistons...

I'm seeing a lot of former Pistons being tossed around, and maybe other than Stackhouse, I don't know if I'd go that route.

The Spurs organization has produced some decent coaches, so any of those assistants might be a better option than the names we are familiar with.

**Knocturnal** · May-07-18, 08:17 PM

Possibly Chauncey Billups? Homerism aside, I do really enjoy listening to his input as an analyst on ESPN. Although he has no prior coaching experience, I do get the sense that he is well respected by his fellow peers and colleagues. He did turn down the Cavs job offer as GM last year, but I think that was due to a low salary offer more than anything. It will be a monumental task for whomever takes over, that is for certain...

**Smirnoff** · May-07-18, 09:52 PM

Bill Laimbeer has just be named.....Bad Boy's II.

**Danny** · May-08-18, 07:42 AM

Good riddance

**CassTechGrad** · May-08-18, 08:15 AM

I agree, good riddance to Stan. First, Van Gundy said Trump supporter's are racist and/or misogynist. Then, while addressing basketball’s one-and-done rule,Van Gundy decreed that its supporters are racists also. I have no problem with anyone taking a stand against Donald Trump or the NCAA but assigning the worst possible motives to people is not what a person in his position should be allowed to do. He’s not insightful enough to see into a person’s soul. I stopped watching the Pistons because of him.

**Bham1982** · May-08-18, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by CassTechGrad

I agree, good riddance to Stan. First, Van Gundy said Trump supporter's are racist and/or misogynist. Then, while addressing basketball’s one-and-done rule,Van Gundy decreed that its supporters are racists also. I have no problem with anyone taking a stand against Donald Trump or the NCAA but assigning the worst possible motives to people is not what a person in his position should be allowed to do. He’s not insightful enough to see into a person’s soul. I stopped watching the Pistons because of him.

Sports coaches have a right to their opinions. In the cases you listed, he was 1000% spot-on.

If you refuse to watch the Pistons because the coach has a problem with someone calling Mexicans "rapists and murderers", Latinas "Miss Housekeeping" and the Klan "some very fine people", then I would say that's a pretty clear window into your worldview.

**EGrant** · May-08-18, 09:21 AM

Yeah the NBA probably isn't for you if Stan's comments ruffle your feathers that much. At least the NFL still exists for that kind of thinking.

**jcole** · May-08-18, 10:29 AM

I'll miss Stan the Man Van Gundy. He says it like it is

**401don** · May-08-18, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by jcole

I'll miss Stan the Man Van Gundy. He says it like it is

It's difficult to know how good of a coach Van Gundy is. As an exec he put together a flawed roster, made worse in the long run with the Griffin trade. Some of that is on Gores, who clearly didn't want to go the total rebuild route when attendance was caving and the team was moving into a new arena [[see red wings). As a coach he never even had the flawed roster healthy for a full season. Most are in agreement a healthy team should finish anywhere from 6-8 in the East. Next year's coach might have a chance to prove it. Problem is, as the 1st place Raptors have proven, even very good doesn't get you far in the NBA if you don't have a superstar.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · May-08-18, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by EGrant

Yeah the NBA probably isn't for you if Stan's comments ruffle your feathers that much. At least the NFL still exists for that kind of thinking.

Agreed. Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich have had similar stances as SVG on Trump. If you stop watching because you disagree with another's opinion, you weren't a real fan to begin with. They have a right to voice they're opinions, just like we do. Pistons are at the crossroads, the next hires for GM and Head Coach have to get it right, although I don't have faith that Gores, knows what the hell he's doing.

**jerrytimes** · May-08-18, 11:01 AM

Too bad the Red Wings couldn't do this same thing and fire Holland.

**EastsideAl** · May-08-18, 11:38 AM

I liked SVG as a person, and I think most of his team did too. Certainly his comments on our racist-in-chief are the least of his problems as far as I, and I think most Piston fans, are concerned.

But as a coach, and particularly as head of player personnel, I think he has been found lacking. Their consistent failures in 4th quarter situations I think can be fairly laid at the feet of the coach. It is a shame to be sure that SVG never had his full healthy roster together over the past couple of years, especially Reggie. But I think most folks still realistically see this Pistons team, even at full health, as a bottom half of the bracket playoff team at best, in a conference with little depth.

But at a point when the team's best long term strategy would seem to be about stockpiling draft choices and working to get younger supporting talent, SVG and the Pistons acted like they were already a contender and traded away pieces of their future for a fading second-tier star and, worse yet, his big contract. Now, whoever comes in will have an aging, injury-prone, and marginally playoff-contending roster, with no first-round pick, and salary cap hell for a couple of years with no visible way out. So, not a lot to offer prospective candidates, other then the [[very likely short-term) prestige of being an NBA head coach.