Pistons Notes: Van Gundy, Bower, Billups, More

In the wake of his dismissal by the Pistons on Monday, Stan Van Gundy indicated that he wouldn’t dismiss the idea of returning to coaching in “the right situation.” He reiterated that stance in a text message to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel, but stressed that his interest in landing another job with an NBA team doesn’t extend beyond coaching.

“[I’m] not interested in a front office role,” Van Gundy wrote.

Let’s round up a few more notes on the Pistons, with a focus on SVG…

• A source tells Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press that GM Jeff Bower, whose contract ends on June 30, will run the front office on an interim basis. Only one member of the coaching staff and front office – assistant coach Rex Walters – has a contract that extends past June 30, according to Ellis.
• Multiple sources tell Ellis – within that same story – that it wasn’t quite right to say Van Gundy was resisting a change to his role, as ESPN reported last week, since specific changes hadn’t yet been discussed. For his part, SVG said on Monday that he would’ve been interested in continuing to coach the Pistons without the president of basketball operations title.
• Four years after they hired Van Gundy to run the show in Detroit, the Pistons should be able to make a stronger pitch to front office and coaching candidates this time around, in the view of Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. As Langlois notes, in 2014, the Pistons were coming off a five-year run in which they hadn’t surpassed the 30-win mark — the current squad has immediate playoff potential.
• The Pistons’ decision to wait until nearly four weeks after the 2017/18 regular season ended to move on from Van Gundy is a reflection of the club’s poor leadership at the top, says Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports.
• Ansar Khan of MLive.com explores whether hiring Chauncey Billups to a key front office role is the right move for the Pistons.