The Detroit Pistons are at the beginning of what will be a very busy offseason.
Head coach Dwane Casey moved to the front office, so the Pistons need a new head coach, and will have to retool the roster if they want to meet the stated organizational goal of finally being competitive next season.
Detroit has already set interviews with several candidates including Kevin Ollie, Chris Quinn, Charles Lee, Jarron Collins and current assistant Rex Kalamian.
Aside from Kevin Ollie, who is the head coach of Overtime Elite, the rest of the candidates represent some of the top assistants currently in the NBA.
But it’s possible that the Pistons will extend their search to outside of the NBA, which is why the absence of one name is somewhat surprising.
Will the Detroit Pistons interview Ime Udoka?
One of the hottest names on the coaching carousel is former Boston Celtics’ head coach Ime Udoka, who was suspended and eventually let go for conduct contrary to the team’s policies.
Even though Udoka comes with some controversy, many believe he is still one of the top candidates for an opening after he led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his one and only season on the job.
Boston had the league’s best defense under Udoka, and he was well liked by his players, so he has some of the qualities Troy Weaver says he is looking for in his next head coach.
Weaver was quoted as saying “discipline, development and defense” would be three of the criteria the Detroit Pistons want in their next coach.
Udoka certainly qualifies from a coaching perspective, but his off-the-court issues may make him a guy the Pistons stay away from considering they’ve constantly talked about building a certain type of culture.
The Detroit Pistons may still interview Udoka, as it is very early in the process, but he already has an interview set with Houston on Wednesday, so it is somewhat surprising that he wasn’t in their initial group of candidates.
It could be that Troy Weaver has someone else in mind, or that they will just wait to interview Udoka at a later date, but as of right now, he is not part of their search, at least publicly.