1:21pm: The Pistons won’t conduct a search for their permanent coach right away, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
1:04pm: John Loyer will take over as interim coach, tweets David Mayo of MLive.com.
11:07am: The Pistons have fired coach Maurice Cheeks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.com. Despite back-to-back victories on the weekend, general manager Joe Dumars informed Cheeks of his dismissal on Sunday morning, Wojnarowski’s sources said. Wojnarowski writes that Cheeks was in the first season of a two-year deal, but reports when Cheeks was hired indicated that his contract was a four-year deal, with a team option for the final season.
In a season that has fallen short of his playoff expectations, Detroit owner Tom Gores has been pushing for changes. Detroit is 21-29 and a half-game behind Charlotte for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff chase. Wojnarowski also suggests that Gores was behind the firing, while Joe Dumars advocated giving Cheeks more time.
This move comes on the heels of Cheeks’ sideline confrontation with Will Bynum, as well as his admission that he should be doing a better job at preparing the team to play. Cheeks’ firing also marks the first coaching change of the NBA this season.
No interim coach has been appointed for the team, but assistant John Loyer is expected to be frontrunner, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Get him in the garden
Honestly I don’t know what this means for the Pistons. They have what I believe could be a top 10 team in the NBA. They have the players they just need a great coach to tell them what to do. Hopefully this means no more jumpers from my man Jennings. Time to play inside out.#StayClassyDetroit
It’s tough to play inside outside with no shooting.
Dumbars must be the smoothest talker on Earth. He is completely responsible for the demise of the franchise, and gets to hire yet another coach. Gores must be as dumb as the Ford Family. If he moved this garbage franchise, no one would notice.
I don’t get firing a coach after a half of season. At least let the guy get a system in place.
Unbelievable. The problem is Dumars who signed Smith, a PF who thinks he’s a long range shooter, rather than finding some true perimeter shooters.
This gig is turning into the Cleveland Browns head coaching job of the NBA!
So Detroit decides to spend $54 million on Josh Smith to play out of
position, giving them terrible spacing and no outside shooting with 3
players down low clogging the lane, and an inefficient PG in Brandon
Jennings. When it doesnt work, they decide that is reason to fire
Maurice Cheeks? Really? Thats incredibly stupid