It’s a good time to be a fan of the NBA. The playoffs are now in full swing, and legendary players are battling to further their legacies. LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant continue to jockey for their places among the Top 10 players in the history of the game, while the likes of Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and James Harden are each still chasing their first, elusive championship. Teams like the Lakers and Celtics are pursuing yet another banner to hang from their rafters, while the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings are competing for a shot to earn their first. The Detroit Pistons are watching from home, but have a huge offseason in front of them.
Now, as for being a Pistons fan specifically…well, we do have the NBA Draft Lottery to look forward to.
There is much more than that to anticipate, including a coaching search, so what better time to take a look back at the best and the worst coaches in Detroit Pistons’ history.
Detroit Pistons: 5 best and 5 worst coaches in team history
5th Worst: John Kuester
From the very announcement of his hire, I was fit to be tied. As soon as Joe Dumars and others started talking about what a nice guy he was, I was fairly certain catastrophe loomed. His career win-loss record of 57-107 brings with it the distinction of ending a dynasty. Yeah, the writing was on the wall, but the team had still made it to the playoffs eight years in a row before Kuester got control of the chalkboard. When he was announced as the new Head Coach, I think Rip Hamilton died inside.
5th Best: Flip Saunders
Man, I didn’t want to do it. A case can be made in the other direction. One could attribute all of his success to the excellent talent he had. It was that thought that compelled me to give up a nod as one of the best, with the key words of that last sentence being, “all of.” He did, in fact, have quite a bit of success, including the best regular season winning percentage in franchise history by a country mile with a rather remarkable 71.5 percent. Another notch in the belt would be the fact that he actually came a Rasheed Wallace brain fart away from being the third coach in team history to bring home a championship, which may have shot him all the way up to #2 on this list. Flip wasn’t a ton of fun. I think he had one facial expression. But he was still one of the better coaches the Detroit Pistons have had.