Pistons Bail on Curry, and Avery Johnson too?

By: Matt

Last week the Detroit Pistons fired rookie Head Coach Michael Curry. Under Curry the Pistons earned a playoff berth as the 7^th seed in a week Eastern Conference and were quickly blown out by the best team in the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers. While one might think that firing a Head Coach who took his team to the playoffs is harsh, Curry’s reign as the headman in Detroit was hardly a success. Over the last 10 years the Pistons have been a perennial championship contender and NBA powerhouse. Under Curry, that began to end, former Center Ben Wallace was let go after the 2005-06 season, but Wallace has hardly been an NBA since leaving Detroit. The real end to the Pistons ‘dynasty’ came when team point guard Chauncy Billups was traded for Allen Iverson midway through this season. By making the Iverson deal the Pistons got an elite scorer; however, the loss of Billups proved critical. Without one of the best true point guards running their offense the Pistons became inefficient, and Iverson, for the first time in his career, was unable to stay healthy. Curry was forced to decide whether or not to start Iverson, and in the process made an enemy of longtime team swingman Rip Hamilton. The Pistons further fell apart when they made the process of setting a starting line-up a long and painful one, and the trade for Iverson transformed the Pistons from a competitor to another team trading talent for cash (in the form of an expiring contract) and no chance for glory. After the up and down season that only ended with a playoff appearance due to rampant injury and a lack of talent in the East, Head Coach Michael Curry was fired, but one is left to wonder as the Pistons search for their new Head Coach, why did they hire Curry in the first place.

Curry was a Pistons assistant coach, but over their extended run of excellence, the Pistons Head Coaches were Larry Brown and Flip Saunders, two veteran coaches who had proven their ability to win in the NBA. Curry, unlike his two predecessors, was unproven and naïve, and the results of his one season in charge were hardly unpredictable. To replace Curry, the Pistons have selected John Keuster, an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers and formerly with the Pistons. While Keuster has been a coach on two successful teams, Michael Curry also had a good pedigree, but his one-year could be described as disastrous. Keuster may be successful, but with Avery Johnson available for hire and apparently willing to come to Detroit, passing on the proven coach is, to say the least, a questionable decision.

With the recent additions of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva the Pistons appear geared for success, and while Keuster could potentially turn talent into results, his lack experience as an NBA Head Coach will cost the Pistons a few games this year. I hope that the Pistons are successful if for no other reason than the fact that Detroit needs something to be proud of. That being said, it is hard to understand what the Detroit front office is thinking. Insanity has been defined as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That is exactly what the Pistons are doing by hiring Keuster just one year after hiring Michael Curry, another former Pistons assistant. It’s hard to imagine that the Pistons will return to Championship form, but sometimes in sports the seemingly insane decision turns out to be the best one.