| What Can Detroit Do For Brown? Authored by Tommie De Riemaecker/Off The High Glass - July 11, 2005 - 2:35 am
Detroit Pistons head coach Larry Brown is sick. He says he may or may not be able to coach. He says he only wants to coach in Detroit if he does coach, if the Pistons will have him. He has three years and $18 million left on his contract. But because his reputation was fed during the season and playoffs with well-played overtures from the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons brass was insulted because he didn't exactly deny interest in the midst of the Pistons’ repeat run.
Here's how to solve it, real quick, real easy, for the best of all parties.
It's fairly obvious the Pistons have former Minnesota Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders waiting in the wings in the event Brown is dismissed or resigns. Saunders is owed $5.5 million by the Timberwolves next year not to coach. If he signs on with any NBA team in any capacity, he forfeits it. If Detroit wants Saunders, Detroit can ask him to wait it out a year. He loses no money. Hooking him up in the front office looks bad -- a vulture, if you will. It also causes him to forfeit his Minnesota money. If he says no, no great shakes. The best coach on the market right now, sure. But not a make-or-break proposition for the perennial NBA contenders.
The Pistons shouldn’t dismiss Brown. First, they’re on the hook for his salary. Second, they’d feed a festering reputation as an otherwise classy organization that eats up and spits out quality, successful coaches, firing both Rick Carlisle and Brown in just a span of two years. Not a good move for the future. Some seem to underestimate Brown's positive impact on the team, as well. For a coach who supposedly had lost his team’s support during the playoff stretch, a Game 7 loss wasn’t too shabby.
Here’s the real, tangible kicker in the whole mess. Brown missed 17 games last year with assorted ailments. Lead assistant coach Gar Heard did a terrible job in his absence, despite a solid 9-8 record. Brown has argued, validly, in the media that other teams (the Utah Jazz with Jerry Sloan, Houston Rockets with Rudy Tomjanovich, and the Dallas Mavericks with Don Nelson) have let their veteran coaches take care of their problems pressure-free. The difference there -- quality, veteran, dependable lead assistant coaches to take over in the interim. The Jazz used longtime assistant Phil Johnson, the Mavericks a triumverate of old hand Del Harris, veteran player but new assistant Avery Johnson and team president Donnie Nelson, and the Rockets had Larry Smith on standby.
To fix the Brown drama, the Pistons simply need to hire a dependable veteran assistant coach and name him the interim head coach until Brown is cleared to return. Saves face for all parties. It just can’t be Saunders, though.
But there are parties that would work. Some are more attractive than others.
Topping the list would be Tomjanovich, who stepped down halfway through last season as the Lakers' head coach because of stress. Tomjanovich has worked with Brown before with the national team, has Michigan roots (born and raised in Hamtramck), has a championship resumé, and may be able to accept the interim gig, knowing he can put his all into it on a short term basis. Again, if the Brown problem lasts a year or longer, he would be let go and replaced with Saunders on a permanent basis.
Sidney Lowe would be another choice. Currently under contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves as an assistant coach, Lowe, a former Piston player, has been interim head coach of the Timberwolves before, as well as the head coach of the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies. He is on the fence about his future with the hiring of new coach Dwane Casey, who has already dismissed Randy Wittman from the staff, sent Jerry Sichting packing upstairs back into the scouting department, and replaced them with Seattle crony Dean Demopolous as his lead assistant (Lowe's previous seat) and former Nuggets assistant Rex Kalamian. Lowe's downside is that he could be viewed as a Saunders crony, as he ably assisted him in Minnesota before Saunders was fired this past season.
Larry Smith, previously mentioned, is another possibility. On the staff of the Lakers, Smith might be let go as Phil Jackson re-assembles his previous staff. Smith spent a long time in the league as a player in the Ben Wallace mode -- tough, undersized, dependable, scary power forward with a workman-like attitude.
For any of the three, or any other possible solutions, it would be an opportunity to either futher a career with Detroit or another team, show what they can do, or validate previous success.
The weak link for Detroit right now isn't Larry Brown. It’s Gar Heard. |
