The Detroit Pistons have fired Michael Curry as coach, the team announced Tuesday. "This was a difficult decision to make," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in a statement. "I want to thank Michael for his hard work and dedication to the organization. However, at this time, I have decided to make a change." Curry was named coach on June 10, 2008 and was 39-43 this past season. The Pistons were swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4297296
My problem with firing him is you made a big trade a few games into the season. Probably one of the most difficult players to coach for a new coach on that type of team.
Everytime Michael Curry opened his mouth to speak, the world got dumber. Good lord, was he painful to listen to!
I like Michael Curry. I always root for my fellow GSU alumni, so I hope he gets another chance down the road.
He lost the respect of his players in the first quarter of the season. He was a sunk cost: as a new coach Dumars thought he had some upside/room for improvement, and the team was not desperate to win now; he didn't, so he's cutting his losses.
This is a good move by Detroit. Curry was up there with Terry Porter in being bad coaches. For some reason I kept thinking Detroit was going to turn it on any minute now throughout the season.
The players basically quit when Chauncey got traded. Rip even said he would not have went back to Detroit if he knew that would happen. Rip and Tayshaun cried when they traded Chauncey. Sheed stopped playing ball 2 years ago. Don't know how good of a coach Curry is but it is tough to judge him by this situation.
He also lost the team completely with how he handled the benching Rip instead of Iverson. Supposedly he didn't even tell Rip beforehand; he first mentioned it in a team meeting. From then on, he and Rip were barely on speaking terms. When your best player and coach can barely be civil with each other, forget it. It was the right decision for the Pistons, so I'm not happy about it. Even with the AI/Chauncey trade killing the Pistons as a team, Curry still could have maintained cred with the players even while losing. If he had made the right decision and benched AI instead, who knows. He wasn't fired because of their won/loss record and first round loss.
This is like when Sactown fired Adelman. This should be a lesson to EVERY GM and owner in the league: don't fire a good coach if the replacement is going to be young and grossly inexperienced. It's not good for the franchise, nor the young coach to throw him out there. Does this mean Laimbeer is given a shot?
Detroit wins one championship and suddenly they are uncoachable. At some point, they are going to have to blow up the current core. Rip, Sheed and Prince have way too much pride for my liking. I dont think there is any coach in the league that could "earn" these guys' respect.
So... does this mean Dumars is no longer blowing the team up, and he actually wants to win now? Curry jumped on the grenade for Dumar's cost cutting. Dumars sacrificed him a little early, imo.
