The Detroit Pistons had to persuade Monty Williams to take their money and their job a year ago, and then Williams had to convince the Pistons he wanted to stay after a disastrous first season.
Team owner Tom Gores made the decision to fire Williams himself, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Newly minted but not yet introduced Pistons President Trajan Langdon will move to hire a head coach after a coaching cycle that has already seen some twists and turns. .
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers still have vacancies, and the Pistons are third — this next hire being the sixth head coach under Gores since he purchased the team at the end of the 2010-11 season .
More head coaches than playoff wins — because the once-proud franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2008. Other franchises have gone through levels of contention and rebuilding and regained relevance while the Pistons didn’t find traction.
General manager Troy Weaver and now Williams are out, and the Pistons are once again changing course. But it would be very easy, albeit short-sighted, to attribute the Pistons’ woes to existing numbers.
This organization needs a complete cleanup, an honest examination of who is involved in basketball decisions and whether the #1 agenda behind those decisions is winning.
Weaver’s strength was in drafting and identifying talent, but he was sorely missed when selecting Killian Hayes at No. 7 in 2020. Hayes was outright released in February after the franchise gave him multiple chances to prove himself, including from Williams, who played him against Jaden. Ivey – a truly confusing decision.
The Pistons drafted talented players after the Hayes disaster, like Ivey, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and most recently Ausar Thompson. All are athletic, all very young and, of course, it didn’t translate into a victory. They may be good parts that don’t quite fit.
Team building and the team in the building upstairs were the biggest obstacles to success before Weaver arrived and during his time in Detroit. The Pistons attempted to address Weaver’s deficiencies in some administrative details, deficiencies he admitted to as an owner when he accepted the job. Problems existed before Williams came in with a then-record contract, and things only got worse during that ugly 28-game losing streak that led to a citywide loss of confidence and put spotlight Williams and his desire to be in Detroit.
Vice President Arn Tellem has been involved with the franchise since 2015 after being one of basketball’s most successful power brokers. He left a mark on the business world, helped lead the Pistons’ move to downtown Detroit and later to their new practice facility, and the Pistons took over many of the clients he was connected with, but it was not very successful.
A league source recently told Yahoo Sports, “There are four factions in this building,” and being on the same page should be the first goal.
Agencies have already had influence over organizations, and there have been levels of success. Klutch Sports has a strong relationship with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks president Leon Rose spent decades at CAA, so naturally many of his clients have been funneled that way.
But it is the historic Lakers and Knicks, who have recently changed the game over the last five years. The Pistons have put plaster over the walls of mistakes over the past decade, with stains on the foundation — which is more than they’ve had under previous regimes, but far less than they’ve had needed to compete in this NBA.
Since the playoffs featured 16 teams and four rounds in 1984, the Pistons have advanced to 11 conference finals, second only to the Boston Celtics in appearances in the East. This is not a weighing station; it’s a franchise with tradition, with banners hanging from the building they played in, and they’ve shed superstars along the way to move into historic venues.
That’s where Langdon comes in and the path he will chart – as the first president of basketball operations since Stan Van Gundy earned that title and the head coaching role in 2014.
Tellem represented Langdon as a player and understandably thinks highly of him. Hopefully, for the sake of the Pistons, Langdon can represent a voice and direction for the franchise as he takes on a role for the first time.
The Pistons had three options with Williams, sources told Yahoo Sports, since Langdon and Williams had met regularly since Langdon was hired. One of them was going all in with the coach with the money left on his contract. Another was giving him a second year to see if he would better engage and develop the young talent on the roster.
The third was to release him, as giving him another year seemed to only end the inevitable road, especially with 2021 No. 1 draft pick Cade Cunningham up for a rookie extension this summer and having a list around him that doesn’t. complete their skills.
So the Pistons chose option 3 by firing Williams and eating more than $60 million off his contract.
One could easily assume that Williams had to take the job because of the money, something he candidly admitted on the day of his presentation. This set off a chain reaction around the NBA for the rest of the coaching profession, a recovery plan of sorts.
Gregg Popovich, Erik Spoelstra, Ty Lue and Steve Kerr were all worth it, but it’s much easier for everyone to get big salaries when you fix the curve.
But when he told the Pistons he would rather take a year off after leaving the Phoenix Suns, especially given his wife’s health, the Pistons should have listened.
He wasn’t the best choice for them as a veteran coach who made the 2021 NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns. Williams needs a team of veterans with the right voice in the locker room to echo his message, and the Pistons, with their youth, need a coach who can focus on development — as well as ‘a list without so many mismatched pieces.
James Borrego could be a name to watch, league sources told Yahoo Sports, along with ESPN analyst JJ Redick. Redick is currently one of the leading candidates for the Lakers job, so it’s unclear how well Detroit could actually win.
Redick and Langdon have the Duke connection, and they were in New Orleans when Redick signed there as a free agent before the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season.
Tellem is also a fan of Redick, for what that’s worth.
Soon, Langdon will take the podium in Detroit and explain to a fan base desperate to get back into the NBA’s good graces how he plans to get there.
For him and for everyone, we hope that it will be one voice, one program, one vision.