With the hiring of Dwane Casey, the Detroit Pistons finally have a head coach. But it remains to be seen if it’s a decision that will work.
Dwane Casey isn’t the flashiest hiring, nor is it a terrible hiring for the Detroit Pistons’ next head coach.
Casey was the safe option, and sometimes, betting on safe rather than rolling the dice is a very smart choice.
Fans will no doubt want to shoot for the moon, and see the Pistons back to being the Eastern Conference powerhouse they have known them to be, but pushing for that at this very moment is unrealistic.
The roster currently has some very solid pieces, and you cannot question the fact that Stan Van Gundy left this team in far better condition than how he found it back in 2014.
However, even with some promising players, the Pistons are likely still worlds away from being a serious title contender.
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The positive is that if Casey’s track record is anything to go by, he’s the perfect man to get the Pistons primed for an eventual rise back to the top.
Casey’s tenure with the Toronto Raptors has been well documented, especially his team’s poor performances in the playoffs.
If he was able to somehow replicate the same team progress we saw with Detroit’s neighbours to the north it would be a major win for the franchise.
Firstly, the Pistons are desperate to return to some form of relevancy.
This team hasn’t been thought about seriously for a decade at this point, and dwindling crowd numbers show the locals are apathetic towards them.
The first step on the road to recovery of this franchise is winning back the fans, and the surefire way to do that is winning.
Casey doesn’t need to get the team winning 50+ games every single season right off the bat. But making the playoffs and at the very least winning a postseason game or two is the expectation.
With a core consisting of Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson there is no reason why a coach of Casey’s caliber shouldn’t take them to the playoffs, obviously barring any catastrophic injuries.
He’s even inherited a not too shabby supporting cast with Reggie Bullock, Luke Kennard and Stanley Johnson.
There’s a smattering of great outside shooting, defence and playmaking at the heart of this assembled group. And while outside of their shooting they’re not world-class in these areas, they aren’t horrendous either, giving Casey a lot to work with.
When he took over the Raptors they were a middling team stuck in the NBA’s danger zone; not good enough to make the playoffs, but not awful enough to be rebuilding through constant top lottery picks.
Two seasons after being at the helm the Raptors found themselves as a top-four team in the East.
There are serious concerns about whether Casey is a good enough coach to make a team a true contender, and perhaps he was a victim of being in the Eastern Conference at the same time as LeBron James having his historic run of NBA Finals appearances.
We also need to factor in that two of the team’s most important players are big men. Casey doesn’t have a track record of utilising these kinds of players.
He never had access to players of Drummond and Griffin’s caliber in the Toronto frontcourt, so I think it’s only fair to give the benefit of the doubt, at least for the moment.
Jonas Valanciunas always managed to play Drummond off the court when the two sides matched up, and at the very least he can bring a unique perspective on how to get Drummond playing better against those who give him serious trouble.
Even if he isn’t the coach to take a team to the Finals, he’s clearly capable of building up a team that is only a step or two away from being genuine, and if that ends up being his legacy in Detroit then it would be a major success.
Not all coaches are destined to get a team over that speed hump, but you only have to look at the Golden State Warriors to see that it isn’t the worst thing for your franchise.
The Warriors were a solid team in the Western Conference under Mark Jackson. But they never did any serious damage or came close to contending for an NBA championship.
At the end of the 2013-14 season, they fired him, replaced him with Steve Kerr and the next year they won it all.
Obviously, you need to take into account Steph Curry’s meteoric rise from good player to unanimous MVP. But there is no doubting that Kerr’s coaching ability helped legitimize that team and took them to places Mark Jackson could not.
Casey has been a head coach in the NBA for nine years at this point and many of the positives and negatives he brings to the table are known quantity by now.
Many of these signs point to him not being a championship-caliber coach.
And that’s perfectly okay.
Dwane Casey can do a hell of a lot for the future of this franchise, just by being competent and steering the team in a positive direction.