The Detroit Pistons will head into one of the most important offseason in recent memory as they look to make the move from tanker to at least play-in contender.
The excuses of youth and injuries aren’t going to fly for much longer, as we’ve seen teams like the Magic and Thunder, who are younger than the Pistons and have also dealt with injuries, improve this season the way were were hoping Detroit would.
Troy Weaver will likely have another high draft pick, and has around $30 million in cap space to spend on free agents this offseason, so fans will expect some kind of improvement next season.
But there are still questions to answer in this one, and one of the biggest is who will be coaching this team next season?
Dwane Casey is still under contract for one more season, so it’s possible he’ll be back, but the team could also go in a different direction, one that would cause some controversy.
Detroit Pistons: Dwane Casey or someone else?
The Detroit Pistons could just bring back coach Casey for the final year of his deal, as he has done the job he’s been asked to do, which is to help build a culture and develop young players.
That hasn’t translated to wins, and depending on who you ask, the player development has been so-so, as the Pistons just shipped out Saddiq Bey and both Killian Hayes and Isaiah Stewart have been up and down.
But for the third season in a row, the Detroit Pistons are likely to have at least one rookie on the first-team All-Rookie squad, so it’s hard to call Casey’s work in that area a failure. He’s also managed this team without any drama, on or off the court, and the players have not given up on their coach amidst all the losing.
But the lack of defensive progress or improvement in the win column could spell the end for Casey, and should if you asked a very vocal section of the Pistons’ fanbase, who never stops pining for him to be fired.
Add to that with the recent development that Ime Udoka just became available and you have the perfect storm of speculation about who the next coach will and should be. Udoka was a rising star in the coaching ranks before getting suspended and then fired by the Celtics, and many think he is one of the best young coaches in the game.
But he also comes with some amount of controversy that any team who interviews or hires him is going to have to reckon with.
There is no guarantee that the Detroit Pistons are going to move on from Dwane Casey, but if they do, is Udoka the right choice?
Detroit Pistons: The pros of hiring Ime Udoka
Udoka was suspended for a violation of Celtics’ team policy (more on that in a minute) but no action was taken by the league itself, so he is now free to coach wherever he chooses.
The pros of Udoka are pretty obvious, as the 45-year-old already has an impressive resume as a coach that includes time as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets before this one year in Boston.
In his first and only season as head coach of the Celtics, Udoka went 51-31 and led his team to the NBA Finals.
Maybe more importantly to the Detroit Pistons, his team had the #1 ranked defense in the league, something that Detroit must improve if they are going to turn the corner as a franchise next season.
Udoka is well liked by players around the league, many of whom defended him after his suspension, so it’s possible he’d be a bit more of a draw than Dwane Casey at this point in his career when it comes to free agents.
He’s young enough to grow with this young team and be the coach for the foreseeable future if he were to succeed, so could be a long-term hire for a franchise that has been through its share of coaches over the years.
The potential positives with Udoka are pretty obvious, as he’s an up and coming coach with a track record in the exact area where the Detroit Pistons need to improve.
But there are obvious concerns as well.
Detroit Pistons: The cons of hiring Ime Udoka
Let’s start from a coaching perspective. Yes, Udoka was great in his first season and led his team to the Finals. But the Boston Celtics were already a team on the rise with some very good players in place, including MVP candidate Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who is one of the best two-way players in the league.
They had Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart and savvy veterans like Al Horford, so he took over a far different team than the one we have in Detroit. Udoka has not been in a situation like the one the Detroit Pistons are in (at least not as the head guy), so it’s definitely not an apples to apples comparison.
The Celtics didn’t fall apart without him, are on pace to win even more games this season and are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference. Their defense hasn’t dropped off much and their offense has improved, so one could argue that great players, not coaches, are what make or break a team’s success (wild theory, I know).
Then there is the elephant in the room, which are the allegations against him and the subsequent suspension. At the very least, Udoka acted unprofessionally by having a relationship with a subordinate. At worst, he abused his power and made unwanted advancements towards another Celtics’ employee.
For a team that has preached “culture” and drafting “the person not the player,” it could be viewed as hypocritical to hire (or even interview) a guy who was fired for violating team rules.
Then there is the fact that his hiring would cause some amount of negative media attention for a young team that would suddenly have to be answering potentially uncomfortable questions about their coach.
It’s also not a good message sent to any women working for the Detroit Pistons, especially if the worst of the allegations are true, and could create an awkward or even toxic work environment, which the Pistons definitely want to avoid.
There are other coaches out there with equally impressive resumes who don’t have this kind of baggage, and it would be a definite flip from the well-respected Casey, who has never garnered any type of controversy.
It’s something that any team that interviews or eventually hires Udoka is going to have to reckon with, so the Detroit Pistons would have to decide if it was worth it. Someone is going to eventually give Udoka a second chance, but should it be this soon? And should it be the Pistons?