As you heard, Joe Dumars announced yesterday that Michael Curry will return as the Pistons coach next season. Most of you were praying calling for his termination, but quite honestly I didn’t see it happening.
“It was an up-and-down season for him,” Dumars said, “and an up-and-down season for us.”The fact that we made so many changes for a first-year coach, I had to step back and be a little more patient than I have been. During the season, I said to myself, ‘What effect is this having on him as a first-year coach?’ I tried to put myself in his shoes.” Via The Detroit Free Press
While Curry has to be held accountable for the Pistons woes this past season, he was thrown a considerable curve ball with the Billups trade. Free pass? No. But think about it, why would Dumars bring in a big ticket coach in what will likely be another season of “transition” for the Pistons. Curry rides it out until he gets better or the roster is set and Detroit can contend for a title.
I would like to hear your thoughts and concerns in the comments, but I’m curious to know if you thought Dumars was going to Fire Curry after this season.
i like MC, but i haven’t seen any sophisticated play calls from this dude. he has some other attributes that a coach should have.. but lets be real — the X’s and O’s of the game are vital. these thing must be established early and developed during the season.. maybe Joe D. should consider bringing in a strong assistant coach like John Paxon did for Vinny in Chicago. Vinny has two STRONG assistants on that bench with him!– that could easily be head coaches.
Well we just have to wait and see what happens. There is so much “newness” with the team so you never know. I just want them to hurry up and get the team members together so they can begin to play together and learn each others strengths and weaknesses and make a serious run for next season…
Well said Fariduddin. You are so right about what an assistant coach can do for a rookie coach. I’m willing to let him coach again next season considering the roster changes.
Yes Poppo, we will have to wait and see.
I don’t think MC will last the whole season next year, if things don’t look well in the beginning, I bet he’ll be replaced on or before the all-star break.
Nat,
I was thinking the exact same thing. Why would Joe D. fire Curry when next year will still be a transition. Let him learn from two years here and move on. I’m actually hoping nothing gets spent until the summer of 2010 and next year should be fun to see ALOT of the youth getting minutes. We will finally see Stuckey go full bore next year.
When Joe first hired MC as the new coach I was pissed! In what world has a rookie coach won a championship? No sacred cows & all that aside, MC had no experience. But the more I thought about the more I realized what was going on. Teams usually take 3 to 4 years to transition. Most even longer. Teams like the Lakers, Spurs & Detroit have been the top teams for the last 10 years. Detroit the only team NOT to win multiple ‘ships. The 1 consistent in all of that has been the COACH! Greg Popovich & Phil Jackson. While those 2 teams kept their stars in tact, their coaches game plans stayed the same, regardless of who was in the uniform. LA had Kobe & the team was ‘transitioned’ around him. The Spurs had Duncan & the team stayed ‘transitioned’ around him. We have changed coaches damn near every other year & haven’t had the luxury of a ‘star player’ to build around. Joe said it himself, star players are hard to come by. I mean Bos had to give up their entire youth movement. They gave up 7 players gor KG, they gave up a high draft pick for Ray Allen & put their faith in their Vets teaching the young guys. Doc Rivers is a terrible coach. TERRIBLE. Look at his career numbers before landing the dream job of coaching 3 superstars with no ego! Doc lost his first year in the 1st round too. Mike Brown lost his 1st year too. They both had young teams & a superstar in LBJ & Tmac. Curry had to face so much adversity with the trade, the injuries, egos & lackadaisical play from his vets. He definitely deserves at least another year to sink or swim. But we HAVE to get some good players that are good character guys that will buy into MC’s system & we will be good to go. UGH, I HOPE we don’t have another season like this one. If so THEN MC gotta go!
DD3, you make some good points, but i do think you’re trying too hard to draw comparisons to other teams.
I personally I’m glad we’re keeping Curry. When we sold or Soul (Mr. Big shot) to the Devil for cap space, we gave up on winning now. It’s a good plan for the future. I’m still upset about the trade because of how crappy it made the team now, and how royally McDyess got screwed over by the whole thing. However, we’ll all be happy in a couple years.
With Chauncey I’m sure we would have been a top 4 seed and made it to the ECF again. I’m very confident of that. Of course, we probably would have lost to the Cavs there instead of in the first round. That’s based on Lebron getting away with whatever he wants and getting crazy calls, along with Ziggy and Mo Willimas still in the Picture. If KG was still healthy, there’s a good chance we would have lost to them.
SO- we punted, hoping to pin the Eastern Confrence behind it’s own 5 yard line. If everything goes just right, we’ll have enough cap to secure the most talented/youngest player(s) that will best fit the team within the next 2 years. The plan is to be at our best when everyone else is in their decline. Boston’s big three will be too old to be nearly as competitive as they are now by 2010, and Lebron could be anywhere. Maybe out west, maybe in Greece. Who knows? The goal is to be a our best when the other contenders are at their worst. But it’s a gamble.
Why fire MC during the waiting period? Joe D knows that he doesn’t expect a championship this year and was gambling big time on last year (if Allen worked for us this year, it would have been a big bonus). This year we were still paying for Flip Saunders’ conract because we booted him. Why Waste money by firing Curry and having to bring in a big name coach to sit and wait?
“with the first pick in the 2011 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons select..”
Richie,
Not really comparing us to the other teams, just offering a perspective. Look at it like this, in Detroit, we’ve fired far better coaches for nothing. We are keeping a coach after proving he isn’t ready. But my point was most rookie coaches aren’t ready. But they are given a chance. Joe knew we weren’t going to win this year, so he made a lot of suspect moves to just shed dollars, including his coaching choice. If we have to rebuild lets try rebuilding with a new coach. Plus like you said, we still pay Flip part of his salary. Next season we will be younger. MC is now officially a coach, like it or not. The team next season will be his team constructed under his philosophy. No excuses. This year we have some excuses. Next year if we don’t win or miss the playoffs, the excuses will be gone along with MC. I understand the moves we made, I just am not happy to sit here routing for Denver to upset LA instead of my own team. We waited so long to get back on tip. Looking back, so many opportunities slipped through our fingers. But I keep rambling out of frustration lol. I just hope we make some good moves & MC does a good job. I’d hate to see him get let go mid season, then we’d really be screwed. We need more stability at the coaching position if we hope to get a few stars to want to play with us.
I like what coach Brown of Cleveland said. He said that a lot of the things his team was doing early as far as losing and stuff was because of him. He said that every summer, he and his coaching staff would go out to other coaches and pick up thing from them and learn and him and his staff became better because of it. Hopefully, Curry will do the same thing. Just like players, coaches should work on thier games also..especially first year coaches..haha
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Hands down the best comment all day. Mike Brown is a smart guy & understands the game. Curry is also a smart guy & understands the game, we can all only hope he bcause as good of a coach as Mike Brown, as much as i despise him & the Cavs! lol
Wait a minute! Mike Brown of the Cavs? i can’t roll with that… I think 90% of their success is due to L. James. James ain’t no Kobe, but this guy is truly skilled in the passing department and like Mike Jordan — he makes average players shine! His talent and unselfishness means so much to this team. I think it might be too early to claim this guy is smart or a good coach. As much as I don’t like the shadiness of L. James getting every damn call or the slight ego — the kid is an amazing talent and very mature. Minus James — the Cavs & Mike Brown wouldn’t even be part of a basketball convo. Having a players like Kobe or James on your team means so much to their teammates confidence (and gives them a cocky-ness). Confidence means so much playing the game of basketball. Larry Brown is a smart dude (ego, hell yes) and what he did was simply amazing! he actually brought a TEAM to the Finals and won — during a time/age where superstars are the call of the day. MC must do some extra homework and figure this thing out. The playbook looked thin as hell this past year.
I agree that the right player can make or break a coach. But a coaches job is to get the players to play hard every night & if the star doesn’t believe in the coach we all see what can happen. The reason I say Mike Brown is smart is because he came in & realize this. He told Lebron, this is your team & the only way we can work together is if we are able to communicate & get on the same page. Lebron is an offensive machine, Mike Brown is a defensive coach. He gets the best out of the talent he has, including lebron on the defensive end. He understands that games are never going to be free flowing & the refs are a big part of the outcome of a game, so he uses it to his advantage. That is smart basketball. Doc has the same philosophy which both learned from guys like Phil & Popovich. I give credit where it’s due. Andy freakin Varajao, Big Z, Delonte West, none of those guys are defensive stoppers or even big time offensive threats, but they all play above their skill set every night. You have to credit the coach for putting them in position to do that. MC couldn’t get the best out of any of his players. We have a far more talented roster than Clevland, minus LBJ of course, but MC couldn’t motivate them to maximize their potential. Maybe one day he will learn how, but obviously this wasn’t the case this year.
I just don’t see how Joe D can say that we made “sooo many changes” this season when the only roster change was bullips left and iverson entered. There’s no excuses for Curry PERIOD he should have done much better than he did, and he should lose his job because of it
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who doesnt really follow basketball and we were talking about what went wrong with the pistons.. This is basically how the conversation went down.
Me: who is your team?
him: the chargers.
Me: who is the worst player you can think of from the past 10 years?
him: ryan leaf.
Me: ok, imagine if ryan leaf was given the head coaching position of the chargers for no reason whatsoever?
The rest of the conversation was gold.. you should’ve been there.
I guess it’s ok because if the Pistons play next season like they did this season, Curry will be thrown under the bus. Beep Beep.
I know he was put in a bad spot and all, but a new starting rotation every two weeks meant that the Pistons couldn’t work towards improving at all, because they were always working on learning to play with new rotations. I’m betting Detroit could have won 10-15 more games if Curry would have just stuck with a lineup all season. Should have been AI, Rip, Sheed, Dyess, and Prince all season, except for injuries.
joe,, what about the other,, rookie coach, your reason,s is first year coach, mcurry,his style, of coaching is not good,, you disappoint us as piston fans
im the biggest fan of you sheed and the bad boys in the palace. im from the philippines. i have fate in you. win or lose im with you. lets just kick there butt next season… i have the the detroit logo in my motorcycle. im proud of you.
Another under .500 season…What a joke
stuckey!!!!!! he is a sg he is a worthless pg!
he does not have leadership he doesnt yell and hes quiet he doesnt have the balls to keep the team in check!
just look what Marcin Gortat did when Dwight was suspended. 11 points 15 rebounds and 4 steals. I’m sure as hell he deosn’t want to be a reserve whole life in Orlando and would easily come to Detroit. We want this guy! He will be free agent right now. Lets get him and put some more money on PF or SF.
swd it takes time to develop leadership. people said the same about chauncy billups and it took him almost a decade to become mr big shot, you can compare that to rondo he only averaged 6 points his first year, last year he was good, and this year he is one of the best in the NBA, so not all point guards develop at the same rate. I think stucky will take a while to develop, but eventually he will be almost exactly like billups, but we have to hold on to him.
It would suck incredibly if we developed stucky and then he left to go play for the nuggets.
2 differences to both of those players Eric. Chauncy had 2 years of Larry “play the right way” Brown in his ear & Rondo is surrounded by better shooters in Allen, Pierce, house & others so the floor is spread out more for him to create. Not to mention his Vets are all more supportive & get on him for mistakes which makes him try harder. They push for his success. Rondo even had Sam Cassell as a mentor. Stuckey doesn’t have a great coach to teach him how to be a great PG & after this Summer, he won’t have the Vets or team leaders to push him harder. Depending on who we get next year, it may be harder for him. At least with Chauncey their, he had a mentor. Now he’s all alone.
I agree with earlier comments about getting some strong assistant coaches. I also agree with Fludics. This team desperately needed a regular rotation all year. When there’s no consistency players struggle.
P.S. ^^Eric, Rondo might be a good point guard, but it’s already gone to his head. Anyone watch the Bulls Celts game last night. Apparently Rondo thinks he’s in the WWE now. Maybe in game 7 he can take a chair from the bench and hit a Bulls player over the head with it. Can’t stand the guy!!!! At least Stuckey won’t ever be a cocky jacka$^%.
Shawn, you’ve made light of the changes that come with the Chauncey Trade. Curry lost the heart and tempo of the team. He lost the team’s leader- the one they all turned to for success, and the one who had the credibility to rally the team around a coach. They also traded a solid starting point gaurd for a man who had no fitting position on the team. A.I. is too scoring oriented to be a PG in our system, too short to gaurd shooting gaurds and too egotistical to come off the bench. That’s a nightmare for a rookie coach.
All those things are true, Richie, but a better, more experienced coach would have been able to handle it. To those who say that the players make the coach, just look at Brown and Charlotte or the Mavs and Carlisle. Those teams are a lot better than they were and it’s not due to fabulous superstars! A good coach makes all the difference. Do you all honestly think that MC could have coached any of the suoerstar teams this year with any success? Can you honestly see LBJ or Kobe or any of them overcoming MC’s glaring ineptitude on a regular basis?
What we need is a solid coach with a proven rcord and then we need to keep him for more than 3 years. If Joe would find a good guy and then trust him as much as he trusts his players, we could have a team with an identity. Some of our players have been through 3 different coaches!
If Joe wants to rebuild the Pistons, then the first and most obvious place to start is with the coach.
here’s something to make u laugh guys, enough with this curry talk, the guy sucks 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBw8Nna9gIQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1amn-4-uI&feature=related
The nightmare continues…..
When Joe D signed curry i remember Avery Johnson (former coach of the year) being a free agent. can anyone explain why he didnt sign avery????
jonny think about why avery johnson no longer coaches. Why was he fired from the mavs? Why did avery johnson lead his team to a 1st round playoff in his last two years? If you find the answers to these questions, you’ll understand why we didn’t sign him.
after AI put the hurt on the mavs in 2007, johnson became a micromanager, and refused to let devin harris run the offense, he gave up on his bench players like barea (who now starts!) and it is clear he had bad chemistry with Dirk Nowitzski.
People that think about hiring avery johnson remember how he left, and it was not pretty.
Comare that to how flip saunders left. Saunders immediately got a new job at the washington wizards.
If avery johnson was such a good coach he would be out there guiding a team through the playoffs, instead of commenting about it from a booth.
Very very true Eric, but he inherited a good team from Don Nelson, & made it to the finals in his rookie season. Now the pickings were slim all the way around that year, but he did it. No rookie coach has ever done that. He coached a vet team to the finals. That’s all we asked Curry to do & he couldn’t Now the next season he only led his team to the best overall record & helped turn Dirk into an MVP. 2 big feats for a coach with only 2 years under his belt. But he lost to the coach that taught him everything he knows Don Nelson in the 1st round. He did give up on his bench, but most coaches give up on their bench when there are no results. It’s sad that we’d pass on a coach who just had a bad playoff series for a coach that has no experience. Maybe Avery isn’t the coach we need, but he would be an upgrade to Curry. I am all for giving Curry one more chance as much as I hate it, but if he doesn’t work out & no one else picks up Avery, as a fan, I’d welcome Avery with open arms. Not sure how coaches like Eddie Joran, PJ Carlisimo & Lawrence Frank can get or keep jobs, but Avery Johnson can’t. Something is wrong in the NBA man.
when u guys made the trade u guys should of trade someone else then mr big shot hes the best player on the team u guys messed up the teamm and get a hole new team but keep rip and get a new coach
FIRE HIS BUM AZZ NOW JD OR U A BAD HEAD MAN
Curry was put in an unfair position this season. Give him another year, or two.
Though I must say, his postgame “comments” and such were pretty pathetic and dull. I’m not sure if he’s a real swift thinker on his feet.