Dwane Casey is the perfect coach for the Detroit Pistons’ rebuild
I may seem like I’m beating a dead horse, but I can’t stress this enough: Dwane Casey is an excellent mentor and an even better judge of talent. He’s also a stand up guy because even when a player clearly isn’t cutting it he’s still reluctant to completely give up on them.
He’s the type of coach to exhaust every option before letting a player go. He wanted Sekou Doumbouya to be great, I think most of us did too. Things just didn’t work out that way, and the team went a different direction. Delon Wright was another one that Casey was determined to coach into stardom, but NBA success is a two-way street. So, no matter how hard the coach pushes you to be your best, you have to want it just as much.
These players had something in common…potential, but as Dwane said before we can’t get caught up drooling over potential, as a former recruiter for the NCAA he saw plenty of players who had “potential”, but lacked drive, emotion, intangibles, IQ, discipline and many other things that are required to be successful in pro sports.
The Detroit Pistons’ front office also understands that Casey is tasked with a challenge that’s much more important than winning a few games. He has to raise these young men up to be the future of the franchise and eventually the league. It takes time and won’t happen over night.
Troy Weaver had this to say about his head coach when asked about the team’s interest in a new leader:
"“I’m really pleased, can’t say enough about Dwane and his staff,” Weaver continued. “You think a lot of times when you’re going through the situation, people will say you might want to have a different coach or look at things differently. I absolutely believe and trust that we have the best coach in the world for what we’re going through. His steadiness, the way he sets the tone with these guys, they often say that the team takes on the personality of the coach and that’s happened.”"