The case for Darrell Walker as the Pistons’ next coach
When analyzing Darrell Walker as a Pistons’ coaching candidate, I’ve mostly lacked positives. Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News fill that void:
He garnered respect from the locker room, mostly due to his low-key demeanor and playing experience. He once vociferously protested Kuester taking guard Will Bynum out of a game at home against Portland during the fourth quarter, when Bynum was on a scoring binge, yelling, "What are you doing? You can’t take Will out of the game now!"
Disagreeing with John Kuester is a plus, but I’m not sure that qualifies Walker any more than anyone who saw Kuester coach the Pistons.
Bucks to interview Lakers’ Steve Clifford, which might hold meaning for Pistons
What do Nate McMillan, Kelvin Sampson and J.B. Bickerstaff have in common?
All three have been linked to the Pistons’ head-coaching vacancy, and all three have interviewed with the Bucks.
Perhaps, this is just coincidence. After all, teams like the Pistons and Bucks have only so many viable coaching candidates to pursue (plus Darrell Walker).
But maybe it’s not just dumb luck. Joe Dumars and John Hammond, the onetime No. 2 in Detroit’s front office who now serves as Milwaukee’s general manager, might just share similar preferences after years of working together and learning from each other.
That’s why Pistons fans should pay at least a little attention to a report the Bucks will interview Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
When Bucks general manager John Hammond reached out to gauge Stan Van Gundy’s interest in the job, Van Gundy declined but delivered a strong recommendation for Clifford, league sources said. Clifford spent five years on Van Gundy’s Orlando Magic staff before joining the Lakers in the summer of 2012.
Clifford fits the profile of the kind of hands-on, defensive-minded candidate that Hammond has been seeking
Will Clifford soon pop up on the Pistons’ radar? Not necessarily. But, at minimum, if Detroit’s and Milwaukee’s searches diverge, that would increase the Pistons’ chances of landing their top target.
Pistons to interview Darrell Walker
It doesn’t matter whom the Pistons interview. It matters only whom they hire.
It doesn’t matter whom the Pistons interview. It matters only whom they hire.
It doesn’t matter whom the Pistons interview. It matters only whom they hire.
It doesn’t matter whom the Pistons interview. It matters only whom they hire.
It doesn’t matter whom the Pistons interview. It matters only whom they hire.
Whew. I think repeating that five times is enough for this news. Marc Stein of ESPN:
Sources say that Knicks assistant coach Darrell Walker will soon get an interview for the position vacated by Lawrence Frank.
When news broke of the Pistons’ interest in Walker, I didn’t assume he’d get an interview, but I guess his candidacy is on that level. I still don’t consider him anywhere near likely to get the job, but he should probably be taken more seriously as a potential replacement for Lawrence Frank.
Walker is a Knicks assistant, so the Pistons might have to wait to interview him until New York is eliminated for the playoffs, though different teams have different policies about that. I hope they wouldn’t delay their search solely to interview Walker, but the Pistons don’t sound close to making a hire anyway.
Detroit has been planning its offseason for months, and this is a dead period for pre-draft evaluations. So, I’m pleased with what appears to be an in-depth coaching search – as long as high-profile candidates like Nate McMillan and Mike Budenholzer remain a central part of it.
Using tier system to rank top of NBA Draft board for Pistons
In my column today in the Detroit Free Press, I outline the tier system I use for ranking draft prospects. Here’s how the top of the draft looks from a Pistons perspective:
Tier 1
1. Nerlens Noel
Medical examinations of Noel, who tore his ACL in February, will be essential. Has he lost some of his athleticism? Will he be more likely to get injured? Will future injuries affect him more adversely than they would others? If the answers to those three questions is “no,” Noel is No. 1. He has proved himself the top prospect in the draft, and I wouldn’t mind waiting until midseason for his return. If there are injury concerns, he could slide, but it’s difficult to envision him falling past past the players currently in Tier 2.
Tier 2
2. Otto Porter
3. Trey Burke
4. Victor Oladipo
5. Ben McLemore
These players were very productive in college and have the youth/athleticism/raw talent to continue improving — a great combination in the draft.
As for the order, the Pistons could really use a do-it-all small forward like Porter, who’s the youngest of the group. (That boosts his value to the Pistons because that increases his upside, and they can afford to wait for him to reach it.)
Point guards generally impact the game more than shooting guards, so when teams need both — as the Pistons do — point guards like Burke get the edge over shooting guards like Oladipo and McLemore.
Oladipo’s defense gives him the edge over McLemore. The Pistons might need a score-first, score-only player such as McLemore right now, but in the long run, it’s difficult to win big with a player who can’t contribute more.
Tier 3
6. Anthony Bennett
Most have Bennett mixed with my Tier 2 players, but I had him a step below even before news of his rotator cuff surgery. His defensive indifference just gives me too much pause. For the Pistons, this distinction matters little because Bennett’s fit would rank him fifth among the second-tier players anyway.
Tier 4
7. Shabazz Muhammad
8. C.J. McCollum
9. Alex Len
Muhammad fits the Pistons’ current needs very well, but as is the concern with McLemore, a score-first, score-only player can help only so much in the long term. Can Muhammad do more? Ben Howland’s system at UCLA notoriously makes it difficult to assess guards.
A scoring point guard such as McCollum won’t exactly fit with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond, who need entry passes and lobs, but McCollum might be too talented to pass up.
Len is polished and athletic, but he’d be stuck behind Monroe and Drummond. Also, is he tough enough?
This fourth tier is equally likely to add players as have a player emerge above the rest before the draft. The are many players (including Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cody Zeller) who are a small step below but could move up.
Pistons’ coaching vacancy ranked seventh-most desirable
Chris Broussard of ESPN ranked the NBA’s current and potential coaching openings based on desirability from a coach’s perspective, and the Pistons ranked seventh. Here’s what an anonymous person within the league said about Detroit:
"I keep saying it, but being in the East always helps. They’ve had a winning tradition, so there are still going to be expectations. But they’re already in their process. And they’re not totally stripped down. They do have some good young talent that kind of makes sense. Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe,Brandon Knight — all those pieces make sense together. They just need to get some good veterans around them. And I think the owner is serious.
"Just the fact that he brought Phil [Jackson] in to help him find a coach. That speaks volumes about him and his ego because that means on some level he’s surrendered his ego and said, ‘We need help.’ I like that in an owner. If they make one or two right decisions with the money they have this summer, they could be right back in the mix."
The Pistons should be similar to the Raptors (No. 5), 76ers (No. 6) and Bucks (No. 9) – I have no idea why the Suns are as high as No. 8 – but this is good dose of reality from the propaganda that Drummond and Monroe alone will attract a quality coach. Right now, the Pistons’ job is middle of the road, and Joe Dumars (and/or Phil Jackson) will have his (their?) work cut out to land better than a middle-of-the-road coach.
Pistons advisor Phil Jackson doesn’t want to coach the Nets
Although Jackson passed on the Nets’ job, a source with knowledge of the Hall of Fame coach’s thinking told ESPN.com that he remains open to the possibility of coaching again if he had "influence" over personnel, similar to the arrangement Miami gave to Pat Riley.
So Phil Jackson wants a front-office job. That won’t make his arrangement in Detroit awkward at all. Nope, not one bit.
If I were running team looking for a general manager and a coach – not saying the Pistons particularly – I would be thrilled to hire Jackson as a GM/coach on one condition: He must coach for a couple years and choose a protégé to serve as an assist coach and his eventual replacement. I wouldn’t completely trust giving a general manager job to Jackson, who has no front-office experience. But I would be willing to give it a try if it meant a couple years on the bench from one of the best coaches of all time. He could hire Brian Shaw, or anyone else he chooses, as his coach-in-waiting and slowly transition to the front office.
Aw, heck, maybe I am talking about the Pistons. Who wouldn’t take that arrangement at this point?
Shabazz Muhammad to Pistons in new ESPN mock draft
Chad Ford’s second NBA mock draft for ESPN has the Pistons selecting Shabazz Muhammad with the No. 7 pick:
The Pistons have had a bit of luck the past few years in the lottery. Every year a player who is ranked very high at the start of the season seems to slide to them later in the draft and somehow fits a perfect need. First it was Greg Monroe in 2010. Brandon Knight slid in 2011. Last year it was Andre Drummond. At times, all three were ranked in the top five with Monroe and Drummond going as high as No. 2. Could it happen again this year with Muhammad? The Pistons clearly have a need for a shooter, and before the season began, many scouts had Muhammad as a top-three pick. He didn’t look like one at UCLA, but draft prospects rarely shine in Ben Howland’s system.
Unless the Pistons move up in the May 21 lottery, expect a lot of mock drafts projecting them to draft Muhammad. A top consensus top six has emerged – Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, Otto Porter, Victor Oladipo, Trey Burke and Anthony Bennett – and most mock drafts, like Ford’s, will have those six taken before the Pistons pick. At that point, Muhammad is a big name whose scoring ability and position makes him a decent fit with the Pistons.
Pistons to interview J.B. Bickerstaff
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
Houston Rockets assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff will interview for the Detroit Pistons‘ head coaching job on Wednesday, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
J.B. Bickerstaff is perhaps best know for being Bernie Bickerstaff’s son and a piece of one of David Kahn’s harebrained schemes. Jerry Zgoda of the StarTribune:
The idea with hiring Bickerstaff — 67 and a head coach with four different NBA teams during his long career when he also was a president and GM — would be to sign him for a year or two while his son J.B. is groomed to take over the job when he’s ready.
Fortunately for the Timberwolves, they hired Rick Adelman instead. It worked out for Bickerstaff, too. He went to the Rockets and worked with a team with a winning record for the first time since 2000-01.
Obviously, that losing streak isn’t only Bickerstaff’s fault, but it’s certainly not a positive. Teams obviously like to hire winners, so how did Bickerstaff shine amid despair work his way up the coaching ranks while losing? Nepotism, perhaps? Leonard Laye of BobcatsBasketball.com when Bickerstaff was a Bobcats assistant:
John-Blair is the NBA’s youngest assistant coach. His father had the same distinction when, in 1973 at age 29, he started his coaching career in the league as a Washington assistant.
“Getting an opportunity like this, at my age, is a blessing,” John-Blair said. “Getting to work with my dad every day is a blessing.
Even if Bickerstaff got a leg up because his dad coached – and that’s not necessarily the case – maybe he seized the opportunity and developed into a worthy coaching candidate. For a small window into what Bickerstaff does, here’s an article excerpt from 2011, when Bickerstaff was a Timberwolves assistant. Judd Spicer of City Pages:
Bickerstaff is quick to laud the lack of generational gaps between the rest of the staff — coaches Kurt Rambis, Bill Laimbeer, Reggie Theus are all 53-years old; Dave Wohl is 61 — and the players, but adds that being a young coach has allowed him to serve in a conduit-capacity with players.
"The relationships — because of the similar generation I have with players — it opens doors up for us as a coaching staff," Bickerstaff explains. "It gives me the ability to relate to the guys, but also to be in a position as a coach to demand things from players. I think I can get a lot out of people because I do have that relationship with them. And it’s a relationship built on respect, and they understand that my best interest is for them and the team. Because of that, the coaches can come to me and I can go to the guys and get what we need to get done."
By nature, assistant coaches have different relationships with players than head coaches do. Assistant coaches often smooth over the hardline messages head coaches must deliver, and it sounds like Bickerstaff fills his role well. But can he also make and communicate the difficult decisions as a head coach?
And what has he done to prove himself in Houston? There’s only so much work for assistants to do, and the Rockets have two – Bickerstaff and Kelvin Sampson – good enough to interview for head-coaching positions. By both sharing responsibilities, there’s a limited opportunity for either to prove himself. But Sampson at least established his bona fides with the Bucks and Indiana University.
I asked for a wide-ranging coach search that includes candidates who would command a large salary, and the Pistons – who have or will interview Nate McMillan, Nate Budenholzer, Lindsey Hunter and Bickerstaff – are doing jut that. If they hire Bickerstaff because they like him more than McMillan and Budenholzer, I could maybe get behind that. If they hire Bickerstaff because more-established candidates turn them down, I’d be pretty underwhelmed.
In the meantime, I’ll keep reminding myself it doesn’t matter who they interview. It matters only whom they hire, and they’re probably not going to hire Bickerstaff.
Darrell Walker a candidate for Pistons coaching vacancy
Chris Mannix ?of Sports Illustrated:
Knicks assistant coach Darrell Walker is a candidate for the Pistons coaching job, sources say. Walker was a Pistons assistant from ’08-’11
Walker was a head coach for parts of three seasons between 1996 and 2000. In his best season, he went 15-23, and his career record is 56-113. It’s unfair to pin the losses of bad Raptors and Wizards teams entirely on him, but Walker hasn’t done enough to prove himself otherwise.
He served as an assistant in Detroit under John Kuester and Michael Curry, and if Walker impressed Joe Dumars during that time, I worry it was due only to the comparative level of the coaches he was working under.
The Pistons might be doing their due diligence by talking to Walker, and that’s great. But I’d be surprised if this is anything more than courtesy and shocked if Walker is a top-five candidate.
Joe Dumars meets with Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer has emerged as a candidate for the Detroit Pistons‘ head coaching job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Pistons president Joe Dumars traveled to San Antonio on Wednesday and spent several hours meeting with Budenholzer, the top assistant to Gregg Popovich.
This is really exciting. I’m a Budenholzer fan, and even if he doesn’t get the job, it’s good he’s in the mix. The more quality candidates in the mix, the more likely the Pistons hire a good coach.
I’m also interested in the timing of the news breaking.
As Wojnarowski notes, this meeting occurred before the Pistons brought Phil Jackson on board. So why does it leak now? I don’t know, but completely speculating, here’s a theory: Dumars, upset with the perception he can’t run a competent coaching search, leaked it to prove he knows what he’s doing. If that’s the case, well done, Joe. Any general manager who scores a several-hour meeting with Budenholzer is doing something right.
Of course, there are a number of possibilities, such as Budenholzer or his agent leaking it to boost Budenholzer’s stock. So, don’t read too much into my speculation. Just sharing a thought that passed through my head.
