There are tough-minded defensive coaches out there, including Lionel Hollins and Kelvin Sampson, but the Pistons didn’t fire Maurice Cheeks with anyone in mind, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. There’s no telling what direction Detroit will eventually go in, but assistant coach John Loyer will be at the helm in the meantime. More out of Motor City..
- Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders wonders if Luol Deng or Evan Turner would be good fits for the Pistons. Deng is known around the league as a leader and a class act and could make sense for Detroit as they look for a culture change. Turner, meanwhile, would give the Pistons the kind of steady offensive production that they need.
- The move to fire Cheeks 50 games into his tenure after consecutive wins shows what kind of patience level owner Tom Gores has, writes David Mayo of MLive.com. The recent nose-to-nose confrontation between Cheeks and guard Will Bynum may have proved to be the last straw.
- Cheeks should be glad that he gets to leave the Pistons’ mess behind, opines Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press.
- Kirkland Crawford of MLive.com weighs in with his memories of Cheeks’ short run in Detroit and it’s not exactly complimentary.
- Not all that familiar with Loyer? Brendan Savage of MLive.com gets you all caught up.