John Kuester unlikely to return next season for the Detroit Pistons
John Kuester might well have coached his last game for the Detroit Pistons. According to sources, Kuester’s services will not be retained next season when the Detroit franchise is passed on to new ownership. Detroit Pistons’ president
Joe Dumars however is believed to have survived the cull and will remain with the organization, along with his staff.
Kuester though has a different fate in store. John Kuester was hired as the Pistons head coach two years ago after he had served as an assistant under Mike Brown at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kuester also served on Brown’s staff
at the Pistons back in 2004, when the franchise won the NBA World Championship.
Kuester’s two seasons with the Pistons can be safely adjudged to be a failure as the team missed out on the playoffs on both occasions. In addition, Kuester reportedly had bust ups with three of the senior most players on Detroit’s
roster in Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton. Things got so bad that the players are believed to have shunned a training session in protest over John Kuester’s coaching.
Couple that with the poor record, 57 – 107, under him and John did not have much of a ground to stand on. Having Kuester come back next season therefore simply did not make much sense. At present, the leading candidate to replace
Kuester, if he does leave, is one Mike Woodson. Mike, as most people know, was head coach at the Atlanta Hawks for 6 years and posted a respectable record of 206 – 286 with the Hawks. Woodson also led Atlanta to the second round of the playoffs on two separate
occasions during his reign.
Woodson was also the assistant coach of the Detroit Pistons when they won the NBA world title in 2004. He was a favourite to replace the aging Larry Brown back then, but when the offer from Atlanta came in, he decided to go rather
than wait for Brown to retire. As it happened, Larry only lasted another year in the job, but Woodson was already coaching the Hawks at that time.
The Pistons’ are expected to actively start making the decisions regarding the head coach and the roster once billionaire Tom Gores formally completes his takeover of the franchise. Gore has tabled a bid and the Board of Governors
will hold a session on Tuesday to decide on an approval vote for the sale to go ahead.
The session was not scheduled to be held this early but the threat of a lockout beginning on July 1st, has forced the franchise to move ahead of plan. This is designed towards giving Gores time to acclimatise with the
organization and make key decisions beforehand.
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