The Detroit Pistons hired Dwane Casey to take the team to the next level.
He inherited a terrible roster with some of the worst contracts in the NBA, but managed to win 41 games in his first season and led the Pistons to the playoffs, a place they haven’t been since.
Detroit has won just 63 games in the three years since, as Casey watched his career record go into the toilet while trying to lead a rebuild, which is probably not what he expected when he initially took the job.
Kudos to Casey for sticking around, and same to the Pistons, who identified Casey as a respected veteran coach who is known for getting the most out of his young players, as he did for his entire career with the Toronto Raptors.
The Pistons aren’t expected to be much better next season, and may even be tanking again, which actually puts Casey in a tough spot.
You’d think coaching a tanking team has a lot less pressure than coaching one with high expectations, but it offers it’s own unique set of challenges that Dwane Casey will face next season.
Detroit Pistons: Who will be on Dwane Casey’s team?
Coach Casey will head into next season with a whole lot of question marks around the roster, as they have several veteran players who may start the season with the team but probably won’t be there past the trade deadline.
The Pistons signed yet another player yesterday, so more moves are coming and we are just a couple of weeks from the beginning of training camp. This roster will likely be shuffled right up to the moment training camp starts. It may just be minor moves, but is also possible that the Pistons will get involved in a big trade to take on assets.
Even if Detroit doesn’t make any major moves before training camp begins, they are likely to jettison Kelly Olynyk, Cory Joseph, Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and Kemba Walker at some point during the season, so his roster will likely look very different in a few months.
It can’t be easy to plan when there is so much uncertainty, especially when it’s unclear if the team really even wants to win.