Why Lawrence Frank will help Maurice Cheeks in Pistons’ locker room

Before last night’s win over the 76ers, I answered a few questions for Carey Smith of Philadunkia, including one about the possibility of Maurice Cheeks losing the locker rom:

"Philadunkia:  Between the Josh Smith run-in and a month long stretch filled with losses, is 76ers legend and former Sixer head coach Mo Cheeks on the verge of losing this Pistons locker room?Dan Feldman at pistonpowered.com:  Maybe, but Cheeks has several things working in his favor.  I think these Pistons respect Joe Dumars enough to at least try to bite their tongue about coaching grievances during interviews, which is the same reason I think the Pistons mostly internalized their problems with Lawrence Frank last season.  Plus, after Cheeks was hired, the players spent a lot of time praising Cheeks as a person just to make Frank look worse by comparison.  I think they know if they complain about Cheeks now, they’ll be contradicting something they said recently and will want to avoid admitting their own mistake. As far as Smith specifically, I think he wants to shed the “difficult” label he developed in Atlanta.  I don’t know whether he has the patience to do that, but I believe he’s trying."