Pistons fire Flip Saunders

Shows what I know ... Curry to take over. Says, ESPN.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3423956

 

Rick Carlisle got the same treatment.

 

Rick Carlisle never would have beaten the Lakers. So it was a good move. Besides, Saunders blew it two straight times in the Eastern Conference finals to the Heat and Cavs. Remember this was a Pistons team who two years earlier downed Shaq and Kobe. Yet, they couldn't stop an older slower shaq and Dwayne Wade.
Then they get beat by Lebron, and Daniel Gibson. Not good.

 

Why on earth would you write "Daniel" when you could write "Boobie?"

 

They didn't "down" nothin'; they happened to be standing there when Kobe Bryant was allowed to completely self-implode the Lakers' chances.

There were 6-8 other teams in the NBA who could/would have won the championship under the same circumstances. The Pistons were simply the team lucky enough to be in position to win when it happened.

 

Hey. The Celtics and the Lakers are in the Finals. The Bulls are coached by Doug Collins. Maybe they just got confused and thought Chuck Daly was supposed to have the job.

 

Starman's reflexive Larry Brown bashing is simply inane. Let's compare the records of teams before and after Larry Brown takes over throughout his career.

You want to give Isiah credit for his 56-108 improvement of the Knicks? Go right ahead. Isiah did exactly what he's done ever since he quit playing: He sabotaged the efforts of smarter men around him for the sake of self-aggrandizement.

 

Sure, why don't we? The Pistons had a better W-L record under Flip Saunders than Larry Brown.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/coaches.html

Not unlike, gee whiz, Larry Brown. : :

Sure, it was a team effort, Kobe vs. Shaq. That was the particular moment they chose to act out their little pageant for control of the universe, they figured they were so great it didn't matter what they did, they'd manage to win anyway. Any reasonably-solid playoff-caliber team would have beaten them; the Pistons were the ones that did.

 

It's a Dumars Trademark: in 02 and 03 Carlisle completely turned the Pistons around almost immediately after being hired, and led them to their two most successful seasons since the Bad Boys era. His reward: he was fired and replaced by Larry Brown.

Brown then won an NBA Championship in 04, went to the 7th game of the Eastern Finals in 05, and then was fired (although he was probably walkin anyways).

Saunders then has winningest record in the East over a three-year period and takes the team to 3-straight closely fought Eastern Finals. He's then fired.

Dumars obviously does appear to be a good GM, but damned if doesn't have a penchant for shitcanning coaches who've won a HELLUVA lot more than they've lost. Wait til he gets a bona fide loser.

 

Dumars' first hire as Pistons coach was George Irvine, and he qualifies.

 

Let's not forget that Carlisle alienated just about everyone in the organization in two short years, and then had similar issues later on in Indiana. And will probably have the same in Dallas.
As for Brown, well, he basically screwed himself out of that job by pulling a, well, Larry Brown.
Saunders probably wasn't given a full-time fair shake, but when you step into an organization that expects to win a championship -- now -- and doesn't in three consecutive years, something's got to change. Whether Saunders was the one thing that had to change (and he won't be the only) is unclear in my mind.