Dwane Casey was hired to be the next head coach of the Detroit Pistons before the 2018-2019 season with a tall task.
The team was handcuffed by large contracts and not a lot of talent. You can point to the previous regime of Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Bower for that downfall.
The Pistons squeaked into the playoffs through an over-worked Blake Griffin who was playing on one leg at that point in the season. They were dismantled by a much more talented Milwaukee Bucks team and swept out of the first round.
Current situation for the Detroit Pistons
Senior advisor Ed Stefanski added much better pieces this past off-season to be a supporting cast around Griffin, Andre Drummond, and Reggie Jackson.
However, injuries have derailed this season. The front office has moved on from both Drummond and Jackson.
Detroit is now 20 games under the .500 mark after last night’s 126-106 blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
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This almost feels like a moment where a franchise in a position the Detroit Pistons are in would begin looking for a new head coach. However, I think that would be a big mistake.
Why Casey belongs in Detroit
We saw what Dwane Casey was able to do in Toronto with a young core. The Raptors were 23-43 in his first season. They were 59-23 in his final season as head coach.
He developed guys like DeMar DeRozan, Pascal Siakam, and Jonas Valančiūnas into some of the league’s best talent.
Why can’t he do the same in Detroit?
He needs time. Casey was dealt a bad hand when he came to Detroit. He’s got a bottom-five team in the talent department with all of their current injuries and recent moves.
Who else are the Pistons going to have coach the team through this rebuild? Either way it’s not going to be appealing.
David Fizdale isn’t going to come in and be any better. Neither is Mark Jackson.
Are you going down the college level to find your next head coach? We all saw the fate of John Beilein, who had a tremendous amount of success at the collegiate level.
The front office needs to continue decreasing the payroll so they might be able to get some help through free agency. In the meantime, let guys like Christian Wood, Bruce Brown, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk get a ton of experience.
They might even slide into the top 5 of the draft lottery for the first time since the early 2000’s because of it.
Embrace being bad and give Dwane Casey the chance to develop the young guys. He’s the best head coach the Detroit Pistons have had since the late Flip Saunders was in town.
Don’t let him be your scapegoat.
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