Well, here’s as good a spot as any, since Feldman doesn’t provide me those fancy commenting tools here that you guys have over at DBB.

I don’t think it’s fair to say one of my “biggest complaints” is about the Laimbeer supporters themselves. That’s over-simplifying my argument a tad (like that time I concluded that since you think Andre Miller is a more efficient PG than Rose/Westbrook, you must think he’s better). Here’s my in a nutshell synopsis of Laimbeer:

First of all, the disclosures that I always include yet everyone seems to ignore in favor of “OMG, yer such a Laimbeer h8ter!!” rebuttals: I think Laimbeer is one of the smartest, most underrated players who ever played. I think he deserves a lot of credit for not only coaching a successful WNBA team, but assembling an incredible amount of talent. I think if he, indeed, has worked a lot with Kevin Love, he deserves credit for Love’s development. I think he has the intelligence and passion to make him a potential head coach at some point. Now, for the things I think are fair to question:

- X’s and O’s: Yes, the Shock won a lot. But they also had the deepest, most talented team in the league during that era. I have no questions about Laimbeer’s eye for basketball talent, and the Shock are a testament to that, since he had a major hand in building and coaching that team. But it’s not as if he was considered some sort of tactical genius on the sidelines. His strengths were coaxing maximum effort and intensity out of his players. The Pistons certainly need that, but the way he went about getting it out of WNBA players … well, that might not fly in the NBA.

There were critiques of his coaching strategies at key moments. He also had major clashes with his best player at the time, Swin Cash, which ultimately led to the Shock getting rid of her. It’s fine, b/c they won without her. He might have been right in his evaluation of her. But the NBA is different. You can’t necessarily just jettison a player you don’t like coaching (see: Hamilton, Rip). I think it’s fair, based on that very ugly relationship deterioration between Laimbeer and Cash, to at least question how well he’d handle a similar situation with less flexibility to just get rid of the player in the NBA. I’m not saying he can’t handle it, but it’s a legit question that I’d no doubt want a sufficient answer to if I was a GM considering him for a job.

- Speaking of the WNBA, yes, I do admit that I sometimes have little patience when his supporters use that as a basis for stating his qualifications. If you haven’t noticed, the Shock aren’t here anymore. When they were winning all those titles, people still weren’t watching them a lot. So call me skeptical if you will, but I can’t imagine that too many people actually watched those teams up close to get a feel for the talent he had to work with (which was immense) and his style (which was abrasive, even if it was effective). Also, if we are crediting Laimbeer for the success of the Shock, shouldn’t he also receive just a bit of blame for the demise? I mean, he’s never been the most media friendly guy. In the WNBA, it is an absolute must to be media friendly. Players, coaches, execs … they all basically do their own PR. The few successful WNBA franchises (and yes, there are a few) are successful both because they win AND because their marquee stars are engaged in the community. I do question how committed Laimbeer was on that front. That’s not something that will necessarily come into play in the NBA as much, but if you’re going to bring up his WNBA success, you have to look at and evaluate the entire picture.

And incidentally, with Joe Dumars and Pistons execs always around, they had a very close look at Laimbeer’s Shock tenure. Perhaps they have some reservations about his style as a result of that.

- My last real problem with Laimbeer as coach is simply fit. Is it realistic to expect, even if Dumars has a sudden needed epiphany that it’s time to blow up virtually this entire roster, that he can clear enough guys out in a likely lockout shortened offseason to have the team looking significantly different before next season? Can Laimbeer have success with last year’s roster, probably minus Prince and McGrady (and maybe Wilcox), with a rookie who may or may not be ready for a significant role right off the bat? And if the roster isn’t significantly repaired in one offseason, that makes Laimbeer the single biggest star on this team. He’s the reason fans will buy more tickets. He’s the reason media will cover the team more. Will he be OK in that role? Because there’s a history that suggests he might not like that.

As I’ve said in several posts and comments, I have zero problem with Laimbeer as a candidate for the head coaching job in Detroit or anywhere. He’s paid his dues, he’s smart, etc. And if Mark Jackson can be an effing head coach with his résumé, than Laimbeer certainly can. I do think it’s fair to question why, exactly, people view him as a great candidate for the Pistons. I do think it’s fair to ask, Would there be as much excitement about Laimbeer’s candidacy if his playing career were in Utah or something? I do think, despite overwhelming WNBA success, there are a few high profile incidents that a GM should get sufficient, detailed explanations about as well as how he’d handle similar situations now. And I do think it’s fair to ask, since Kevin Love has honestly always seemed lukewarm to how he’s been dealt with most of his Minnesota tenure (and Rambis has never seemed that into Love, either), if Laimbeer and Love felt differently about each other. And on top of that, Laimbeer has been on staff of a really terrible team. Losing shouldn’t disqualify him or any other candidate, but it’s also fair to ask what went wrong and evaluate whether that candidate may or may not have contributed to that losing atmosphere.

So, in a nutshell, I’m not a Laimbeer basher. I’m not of the belief that the guy shouldn’t get a coaching job. I’m not even of the belief that he should never coach the Pistons. I do try, though, to provide counter arguments to the constant wail of support he gets. I would do the same kind of evaluation with any candidate who has the kind of overwhelming reader support Laimbeer has, at least based on e-mails/comments I’ve gotten the last couple years. The fact is, Laimbeer’s name has been floated by fans when Saunders was hired, when Curry was hired, when Kuester was hired and now. The reason I seem to write about him a lot is because the dude’s name has been mentioned/rumored/whatevered a lot. If Lawrence Frank was a candidate for every Pistons opening in the last eight years or so, I probably would have a similar track record of pointing out things I view as flaws in the reasoning of Frank supporters.

I was/am legitimately a huge fan of Laimbeer as a player and think he’s ridiculously underrated. I think he’s done enough as a coach to get the kind of consideration other assistants around the league are getting. I just don’t understand how so many people can seemingly view him as the perfect candidate.

And Benson is to frail to be picked that early in the second round. There are lots of alternatives that are better if the Pistons want to go for size in the second round.

Because you don’t want him either.