Flip Saunders tenure is over as Pistons head coach.

After leading the Pistons to three straight conference finals without being able to advance to the big show, Joe D and most fans know that its about championships and it is time for a change.
A 176-60 regular season record looks great, but like Avery Johnson's case with the Dallas Mavericks, when you have a team as good as the Pistons, anything short of a championship every year in unacceptable. I feel sorry for him, but then again I think we should have had at least two out of these last three teams in the Finals. Dont think things will be tough for Saunders to find another job. And dont think it will be hard for Detroit to find a replacement. This is just the first step of what is expected to be a big summer as far as changes go for this team.

The Top Candidates are:
Terry Porter and Michael Curry- both Detroit Assistants
Bill Lambier- Former Piston Bad Boy and Head coach of the two time WNBA champion Detroit Shock
Avery Johnson- former Mavericks coach who has failed to get out of the first round since losing in the '06 finals to the Heat.
Tom Izzo- MSU coach who has led the Spartans to glory :yes: (that was a good one.) but at this point is just fan speak.

From what I've read, it looks like Michael Curry, a former Piston, is first in line for the job. As far as i know he's been great in his lone season of assistant coaching and seems to be ready to take over. However, his head coaching experience is at zero but there is a saying that goes, you gotta start somewhere and what place better than in the D with a pretty damn good squad to start out with.

[column by me.]

Now I want to see some player accountability.

My only suprise is that it took the Pistons this long to fire him. That has nothing to do with the man or the coach. I just figure anyone here longer than 24 months is on barrowed time.

Pistons Coaches (1983-Present)
Chuck Daly -- 738 gms., 9 yrs, 63.2%, 2 Champs, 3 Conf. Champs, 5 Conf. Finals, 9 playoffs.
Flip Saunders -- 246 gms., 3 yrs, 71.5%, 3 Conference Finals, 3 playoffs.
Doug Collins -- 209 gms., 2.5 yrs, 57.8%, 2 playoffs.
Larry Brown -- 164 gms., 2 yrs., 65.9%, 1 Champ, 2 Conf. Champs, 2 Conf. Finals, 2 playoffs.
RIck Carlisle -- 164 gms., 2 yrs., 61.0%, 1 Conf. Finals, 2 playoffs.
Don Chaney -- 164 gms., 2 yrs, 29.2%, 0 playoffs.
Alvin Gentry -- 145 gms., 2.5 yrs., 50.3%, 1 playoff.
George Irvine -- 106 gms, 1.5 yrs, 43.3%, 1 playoff.
Ron Rothstein -- 82 gms, 1.0 yrs., 48.8%, 0 playoffs.

I thought collapsing to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season was an indictment of both Joe Dumars and Flip Saunders. Their personnel was not ready to overcome the interior play of Ilgauskas and Varejao. Part of that is Dumars' fault in losing Ben Wallace, then replacing him with Nazr Mohammed and Chris Webber. But most of that is on Flip Saunders who didn't keep Mohammed motivated and not playing Maxiell enough in the postseason to warrant his help when called upon. No adjustments were made to combat the way the Cavaliers were playing Billups on the high pick-and-pop. This problem remained into this season when the Boston Celtics employed the same tactics.

Essentially, the Pistons do not guard the fouline jumpshot and the Pistons are to the point that only Hamilton takes the handoff behind the defense when Chauncey is trapped on the perimeter, occasionally Tayshaun. The offense is a mess when Chauncey Billups isn't running to perfection. These are trends that, as a team, Flip Saunders never addressed and they became exploitable as he chased his elusive 11th playoff win.

Other than that, the Pistons improved by leaps and bounds this season. The problems of the rotation, keeping players ready, running the offense and maintaing the defense while winning basketball games---all the criteria lent itself to a season of improvement. What's going on now is a reaction to the Cleveland opportunity lost. They realize they have a present contender in Boston and some up-and-coming teams on the horizon and I think they jumped the gun on one too many coaches.

Do I think the Pistons will find someone better? No.

The list of candidates that Joe Dumars gave when announcing Rick Carlisle's firing was Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, and Pat Riley. Riley's available, but I don't think the Pistons want him and I don't think they have the money to get him if they did.

They are not a up-and-coming team in a weak conference now. You can't make the pitch that they will win, win, win. You can't make the pitch that they will have job security---Larry Brown's firing took that one away. And you can't make the argument they can just have fun because Flip Saunders just took that away.The fans, even Joe Dumars, seem to be gnawing on their flesh because the Pistons have been good enough to win and haven't. It's very reminicent of the Grant Hill era when his team couldn't get out of the first round.

This move looks desperate. I hope I am wrong. Saunders wasn't perfect, but they won't find a young coach that can have more success than Saunders. The last time they were in this situation, in terms of effective coaching, it became the players' responsibility to win the big games and lead. It was a constant critique of Grant Hill tha the was not the leader he should be and management refused to provide that voice in the locker room to aide Doug Collins or Alvin Gentry or George Irvine. When management found a voice--namely Rick Mahorn and Michael Curry--they were treated like garbage. The Pistons had a firesale, including Hill,, brought in a strong leader and a competent coach in Carlisle, told all the players they had to become better and they would be rewarded for their effort. They can't do that again; it would be insulting. The players they have are very competent, accomplished, and work extremely hard.

To do tha again, the current nucleus would have to be given up and that is a hard sell to the next generation that the same thing won't happen to them in five, ten years.This is a year too late. The Pistons will soon realize that their faults and mistakes are about to be served back to them by everyone with an opinion and rightfully so.

I think theres a Flip curse now, but all aside, i dont agree that it was desperate. Flip had his shot, and he was definitely aware of the circumstance: win(it all) or go home and he failed. sad to see but we need something new.