Empty the Bench

Or at least so reports Chris McCoskey for the Detroit News:

We were all wrong. All of us who speculated that the Pistons’ loss in Game 6 to Boston spelled the end of Flip Saunders’ coaching life in Detroit were wrong.

Saunders met briefly with Pistons president Joe Dumars on Saturday and all indications are that he was told he will be back. Understand that with the Pistons, a coach’s job security can change in an instant, but as of today, the plan is for Saunders to finish out the final year of his contract. He’s already working on next season. He will supervise a workout of draft candidates at the practice facility Wednesday.

**UPDATE** It appears that McCoskey was actually the one who was wrong here. Today Flip Saunders was officially issued his walking papers. Pistons assistant coach Michael Curry is rumored to be his replacement. More updates later.

Huh. Interesting. There’s a few possible explanations here for Dumars’ thinking, if indeed this is a sticky endorsement and not just a way to squeeze some more work out of his coach while he and team brass further evaluate their potential coaching options. First, it’s no secret that Pistons owner Bill Davidson is not a fan of paying unnecessary out-of-pocket expenses, i.e. the luxury tax, coach buyouts, etc. As much as Davidson was ready and willing to run Larry Brown out of town, paying him out all that cash money simply for being fired was a hard pill for him to swallow. With one year left on his rather handsome contract, perhaps Davidson informed Dumars that unless an elite candidate walked through the Palace door—and there aren’t any of those out there at the moment—Saunders wasn’t going anywhere until after next season, at the earliest.

Flip Saunders Photo Credit: Icon SMI

Let’s be honest: though Saunders’ Pistons teams have flamed out in the Eastern Conference all three seasons of his tenure, they have won a lot of games and gotten deeper than most teams in the playoffs. In other words, this franchise is making money.

The other possibility—and it could very well be a combination of both points I’m raising here—is that perhaps Dumars is simply a believer in Saunders’ system (for now), thinks he prepared the team well throughout the regular season and the playoffs, and is giving him a free pass on the end result. Though some players have spoken out against Saunders in recent years, as recently as Saturday some, such as Tayshaun Prince, came to Saunders’ defense and said it was on the players, not the head coach. Rasheed Wallace is certainly no big Saunders fan, but his opinion may be moot at this point as he will most likely not return to Detroit next season (I’ll have more on that tomorrow).

More on whether keeping Flip Saunders is the right decision after the break…

Is this the right decision? I don’t think all the blame falls on Saunders’ shoulders this time, but facts are facts. Saunders was hired to get this team back into the NBA Finals and win a title. He’s gotten his team close three years straight, but not gotten over the hump. This year’s loss to the Celtics is probably the most forgiveable of the three flameouts—the Celtics are a very good team, and honestly there’s no shame in dropping the series to them (being closed out at home in Game 6, now, that’s anothe story). But that doesn’t mean the Pistons didn’t blow it big time against the Cavaliers and Heat in prior years.

If Dumars is confident the players he’s planning on still being around next year still respect Saunders and still haven’t tuned him out, then whatever. There really aren’t that many other proven coaching options out there. Many fans will cry “Avery Johnson! Avery Johnson!,” but what did he really accomplish with the Dallas Mavericks? A horrific collapse in the NBA Finals, a first-round loss to the 8th-seeded Golden State Warriors, and another first round loss to the New Orleans Hornets. Not exactly a stellar postseason track record himself (plus who wants to listen to him before, after, and in between games all season long?)

Flip Saunders seems like a really nice guy. It’s nothing personal. My problems with him in Detroit have always been as follows: his offensive sets overly emphasize getting open jumpers, not drives to the basket. When those shots aren’t falling, it can be ugly. His ability to make the right in-game adjustments on either end of the floor is questionable. He doesn’t seem like a great motivator of men (of course I don’t know this for sure, but it feels that way). And I’m not convinced that he’s the right man for the job of molding the young, talented players on this Pistons roster in Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Amir Johnson, Chiekh Samb, etc., a task that becomes even more crucial moving forward.

If there’s not a coaching change made in Detroit, you can bet there’s a potentially big roster shake-up in the works. It’s going to be an interesting offseason for the Pistons.

Related: Flip Saunders, Detroit Pistons

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