Per Espn--- Pistons fire Lawrence Frank

Submitted by 615Wolverine on
Marc Stein reports the firing. As a Lakers fan I hope Detroit hires someone who can rebuild this team like Larry Brown.

Butterfield

April 18th, 2013 at 2:07 PM ^

If Dumars doesn't go, there will be another post in 2 years announcing a coaching firing. 

Frank, Kuester, Curry, Flip....who wants to work for a guy that assembles a bunch of the same parts and expects you to win with them.  No good coach would take this job. 

Tater

April 18th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^

If anything, Joe is a victim of his early success, when he made a couple of great trades to help build an NBA Championship team out of nothing.  GM's started lowballing him, because they were afraid of being the next GM to be "posterized" by Joe Dumars.  

Compounding the problem: no FA is going to choose to play in Detroit if he has nicer cities to play in.  When it comes to free agents, the Pistons are a "fallback offer" in case they can't go where they really want to play.  Consequently, the Pistons have to overpay for mediocre players just to fill out roster spots.

Whether you like Joe or not, he has been directly involved in all three NBA Championships the Pistons have ever won.

ijohnb

April 18th, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^

but some of this is Joe's fault.  Michael Curry, Billups for Iverson, BG for 60 mil.  These were intensely bad decisions that set the franchise back a good deal.  Some of the heat Joe is getting is not deserving, but some of the decisions he has made are fireable offenses.

MGoCombs

April 18th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^

I agree with the rest, but I will still argue that Billups for Iverson was a great trade and a ballsy one, and Billups is one of my favorite Pistons ever (and I loathe Iverson). The problem wasn't that trade, but what Joe did with the cap space it created. It was a genius move followed by a series of terrible decisions that wasted all of the positives of that trade.

93Grad

April 18th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^

week he traded for cap space (aka Iverson) which meant he basically tied one hand behind his back immediately after freeing the other one. It made zero sense at the time and it showed Joe had no long term vision for the rebuild.  Since 2008 he has basically been a disaster aside from getting lucky in the draft a couple times when Monroe and Drummond fell into his lap.

Butterfield

April 18th, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^

You can't keep surviving off of 9 year old success.  While he had good luck early in his tenure as GM, the reason the Pistons have sunk to the bottom instead of reloaded aren't because teams are afraid of him or because free agents are unwilling to play in Detroit.  

The reason they have stunk starts with the draft:   Rodney White and Mateen Cleeves, Darko Milicic,  Austin Daye, and Rodney Stuckey.  Supplement those busts with ridiculous signings of guys like Ben Gordon and Charlie V (when those positions weren't at all priorities), aquiring Iverson (notice I didn't say trading Billups), and re-signing below average talent to new contracts (Stuckey, Prince, etc.)

 

mongoose0614

April 18th, 2013 at 3:22 PM ^

It bugs me that people cant debate on this site sometimes because of downvotes when it isn't a trolling situation.  It would be much better to state why they disagree.........

Why I disagree is the fact that your premise that GM's are scared of each other is way off.  To be a GM you have to be completely confident and know your stuff.  Every team has a different need that has to be addressed.

He has milked his past success beyond where he deserves to be a GM anymore.  The only thing that would prohibit me from canning him is the lack of an obvious successor.  NBA is way different than NFL for identifying the next great thing in the front office.  When you monitor 300 athletes in the league vs almost 1000 there is a much smaller pool to draw from.

The way is the draft.  Joe has sucked at the draft.  He might of finally of done OK with last year but even Monroe is not getting a lot better than what he showed initially

There are only 4-5 sexy places to play.  There are only so many max players those teams can sign.  That is another excuse.  

 

 

Mr. Yost

April 18th, 2013 at 2:10 PM ^

Those are the two names I'd look at. However, we'll probably hire the 3rd assistant on the Memphis Grizzlies.

I'd also throw big time money at Andre Iguodala and do my best to draft Trey Burke.

Mr. Yost

April 18th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^

Chris Paul - Don't have a shot in hell

Dwight Howard - Same

Andrew Bynum - Wouldn't touch with a 10' pole

Josh Smith - Don't need a PF

Al Jefferson - Don't need a PF

David West - Don't need a PF

Paul Milsap - Don't need a PF

Manu - Too old

Carl Landry - Can't build team around him

Kevin Martin - I'd sign, but not for max money or anything close.

JJ hickson - Don't need a PF

Players who could opt out

Oj mayo says he will opt out - Seems like a headache, but the guy can ball. I don't think we could ge anyone better.

Iggy - Again, he'd be my #1, a winner and a team player

JR Smith - Nope, great off the bench, like Jamal Crawford, don't fall in the start money trap

Monta Ellis - Never going to lead a team beyond an 8-seed.

 

Martin, Mayo and "Iggy" are the only players I'd even look at off this list. I'd be interested to see how everyone else felt about those 3.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 18th, 2013 at 2:09 PM ^

I bet Larry Brown would just love to work for Joe Dumars again.

Firing Frank isn't the wrong move per se but it's a little troubling that only one coach has ever lasted more than two years under Joe D.  If I were Gores I would be telling Joe this is his last chance to get it right.  New coach, cap room, and some building blocks named Drummond and Monroe and possibly Knight.  If he can't make that work, it'll be time for new management.

APBlue

April 18th, 2013 at 2:09 PM ^

That's too bad.  He seemed like a decent guy.  The team has a little bit of talent, but they're young.  That's a coach-firing-presser waiting to happen for a coach.    

Good luck to him.  

APBlue

April 18th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^

In two of the past three years, we've taken bigs in the first round.  

If you're counting 2nd round picks, I know we've taken a couple of SG's.  

How often do 2nd round picks work out in the NBA?  

M-Wolverine

April 19th, 2013 at 12:03 AM ^

Because he's te only GM dumb enough to insist his teams going on these little mini-winning streaks at the end of the season. They could be tied for the 3rd slot in the lottery right now. Instead they could nd up with the 8th slot...before a "ping pong ball" is drawn.

Business Time

April 18th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^

The roster is terrible. We have one borderline All-Star (Monroe), one very good prospect (Drummond), and everyone else would pretty much be a 8th or 9th man off the bench on any team over .500.

West German Judge

April 18th, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^

I figure he burned too many bridges in his playing days and the old boy network just doesn't support him.  It's one thing to win and then reveal yourself as an ass, as Popovich has done, it's another to be vilified by every fanbase outside of Detroit and then try to get into the front office.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 18th, 2013 at 2:34 PM ^

Because the players he was a dick to in his playing days are now the ones in charge of hiring decisions.  I love Laimbeer, but I'm not gonna pretend he was real popular around the league.

I sure wouldn't mind bringing him to coach, though.