The Detroit Pistons Finally Fired Monty Williams | POP Podcast

The Detroit Pistons Finally Fired Monty Williams | POP Podcast

the Pistons fired Monty Williams after just one season the NBA draft is in one week and so much more on this edition of the Palace of Pistons podcast part of the believe Network good evening everybody and welcome to another exciting night of NBA basketball the Pistons are digging in they got the depth they got the big man they got the better basketball team no doubt about it Pistons need a three and they have just another 3 seconds to do it here’s johy Phillips here it is he’s got it he’s got it Dy B hits the three overtime amazing Detroit [Applause] basketball Pistons fans welcome back to another edition of the Palace of Pistons podcast part of the believe Network I’m your host Mike angano join me this week is Aaron Johnson Aaron we are um speaking on the day before your birthday but those listening uh it is going to be your actual birthday so let me be the maybe the first or maybe the second to say happy birthday thank you brother my my good friend and and what a day what a day Monty Williams uh fired you’re gonna be at the press conference with Tran Langdon um you get to listen and maybe ask a question and uh here’s some insight onto the biggest news how does that feel that’s awesome yeah it’s a it’s a busy day tomorrow obviously going to get out on the links before that and get an 18 in it’s important to golf as much as you can so to all the listeners out there make sure you’re golfing make sure you’re getting those those swings in but yeah after that gonna hear from Tom gors and Tran langon on the current state of the Detroit Pistons uh on the coaching search that that is ongoing and I’m sure they’ll might be a few questions about the NBA draft that is uh oh I don’t know less than a week away so a lot to for them to cover a lot for us to cover today and I’m excited to get into all of it I’m excited to get into it as well um we we’ve been like prepping for this Monty Williams uh firing show for a little while so we’re gonna get right into it soon as uh we thank 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your brothers out that’s a great gift idea that’s a great gift and you know what super coste effective I mean Super cost effective um yes please subscribe to our substack uh palip Pistons or you can go to palip pistons.com and it will be the first thing that pops up um so that you can get content like this directly to your inbox we’re when we get to talk about Monty Williams being fired and and that is exactly what happened Wednesday morning the Pistons fired Monty Williams as the team’s head coach he just had one season with the organization it was the worst season in the organization’s history so he really uh made his Mark he still do 67 and a half million dollars for the remaining five years of his at the time a record setting Deal Detroit was 14 and 68 under Monty Williams a 28 game losing streak they were the worst team in the NBA they regressed in almost every major metric despite being healthy with Kate Cunningham uh the final decision was made by ownership by Tom Gores um after Williams had met with the new president of basketball operations traan langon several times uh reportedly Monty was quote unquote blindsided by the firing um but if you listen to this podcast you should not be blindsided because we have been sort of talking this slowly out of the station for weeks now that this was going to happen there was just no way that you could keep Monty Williams after the season that he put together there was just no world where he was coming back and like you said if you’ve been listening to the show you’ve heard us essentially tell you that for at least the past month uh you’re living under a rock if you thought Monty was coming back the the way that he performed uh the relationships that he did not cultivate during his time are very very important reasons as to why he’s no longer here don’t look at just the fact that he was due still another near $70 million look at the fact that he had pretty much alienated himself uh from everyone in this organization he he was an abject disaster there’s unfortunately no other way to put it a hire that at the time everyone ourselves included thought was a home run hire just quite frankly wasn’t it was a swing and a miss from the talk right at the introductory press conference to you know saying that he took the job because the Pistons came back and offered him so much more money than he could have ever imagined from the talks about him not liking analytics not wanting to work with analytics not wanting to use analytics in coaching uh from the fact that he did not cultivate a good relationship with Kade Cunningham with what he did between jayen Ivy and Killian Hayes and starting Killian Hayes over Jaden Ivy after Ivy had such a impressive and promising rookie season the list goes on and on with where Monty Williams failed during just one year with the Detroit Pistons so yes he needed to go let’s give credit to Tom gor where credit is due I don’t know how many owners would say I’m going to take this public embarrassment I’m going to eat $70 million and I’m going to get rid of this guy out of this fr franchise because look for all of the things that are said about Tom Gores and to be fair a lot of the things that are said are fair to be said this was something that I didn’t know if he’d actually do as time went on he did it and it was the absolute right decision he had to bite the bullet he had to accept the failure he had to bite the bullet with the money and he did and the Pistons are in better position because of it they’re going into a new season with a new president of basketball operations hopefully having the power to make true meaningful basketball decisions and they’re coming in with a new coach that quite frankly just could not possibly be worse than Monty Williams yeah for a lot of the reasons that we talked about throughout the season from starting Isaiah livers from a feeling he had one random night to you know some some of the quotes that he put out there it wasn’t Antics it wasn’t analytics I was you know it wasn’t analytics analytics would would probably tell you to not start Isaiah livers I’m I’m just saying no offense to Isaiah livers um I had somebody tell me uh who who covers a team say that Monty Williams was checked out before Adrien Griffin was fired um and Adrien Griffin was another just disaster as a coach and they cut bait pretty darn fast um so Monty’s been sort of on the outs for quite a while and he’s he’s going to get his money um this is a lesson to anybody at any scale of business that you’re working at that no matter how much money you offer if you keep throwing money at someone and they keep saying no the response is not to throw more money at them until they can’t say no because you might get output like this which is a guy who even from the first day on his introductory press conference was like it’s hard to say no you know it’s it I I think he said it’s like it’s an honor for somebody to put up that much money because they really want you that’s that’s the mindset of somebody that is not in it to win a basketball game or put forward their best effort that is somebody who just banked 70 million bucks uh no matter what and there were a lot of bullets bit Tom Gores bit the bullet on the guy that he wanted not working out he bit the bullet on the money um kudos to him for you know looking at the situation probably agreeing with what Langdon had to say and and you know the best option was just to move forward um but now that puts the Pistons into the uncomfortable situation of uh they are one of two teams left in the league now without a head coach um candidates include now there’s a there’s a plethora of people out there with the Lakers now most recently hiring JJ reck to be their head coach we can take him off the board James bgo uh I think had 5 to one odds according to bet online to be the next head coach everything I’m hearing is that the Cavaliers are going to be hiring him in the next 24 to 48 hours um Sean Sweeney an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks who Jason Kidd openly said is gonna be another head coach Derek Lively um credited Sweeney with being a you know a huge um uh Force for him to be a better offensive Center uh Mike anori who took over for Chris Finch very briefly uh after he tour his Achilles or tour his ACL or what did he tear he tore he tore something yeah I think it was I think it was his Achilles I think it was his Achilles as well will Weaver uh Chris Quinn Sam Cassell Kenny ainson you know a lot of these names that that have been percolating in the NBA coaching Sphere for a while um ESPN Adrien W he also added that he’d be shocked if the Pistons had a new head coach before the draft which is next week obviously um so you know i’ I’ve got some thoughts on some of those names but I want to hear your thoughts on the names that I had listed for for head coach um you know we talked about this last year we kind of wanted a guy who could be a um developmental coach like a Chris Quinn you know Sam Cassell coming off a championship with the Celtics Sean Sweeny another developmental guy um Chris Quinn people have called him like a young Eric bolstra which is certainly enticing uh but but what are your thoughts on some of those guys that have been rumored as a potential Suitor for the Piston’s job yeah look I I think all of these names have Merit right I think you know James Bargo is probably the the favorite uh in terms of who people would want although if he’s going to Cleveland that takes another name off the list JJ rck was certainly a pipe dream and and I think you know the deal doesn’t happen right when Adrien wowski reports it the deal has likely been finalized for at least 24 to 48 hours and if you’re inside NBA circles you might know of some of these things that are going down before the general public does so that might have a factor in when Monty Williams was finally decided to to be having having been let go from his position with the Pistons I like pretty much all of these names on this list from from from what we can know right will Weaver seems like an absolute upand Comer we’ve been saying for years Chris Quinn due for an NBA coaching gig Sean Sweeney and M M Nory were both former assistants under Dwayne Casey or it was Nory with Stan Van Gundy but both of them were with the Detroit Pistons at one point in time and now are in the Limelight as some of the top assistants in the NBA Sam Cassell another guy a top assistant has paid his dues going from a Player working his way up through a coaching staff and then Kenny Atkinson who has tenure in the league has been a head coach was an assistant coach before being a head coach has been an assistant coach since being a head head coach like all of these guys have Merit all of these guys have tenure and I don’t think I can look at this group and say I definitely don’t want X Y or Z whereas last year when we were looking at the coaching candidate list for Detroit and it was Kevin Ali and and and you know these other names that were pretty much just linked to Troy Weaver I was like H I don’t know how much I like all of these names so I you know from from what we know on the outside all of these names seem like perfectly qualified candidates I I I unfortunately can’t bring you this super hard take on like really going to bat for will weaver or really going to bat against Sam Cassell because like they’ve all they all have a resume to look at and say it’s respectable what you’ve done how how long you’ve been in each position the ladder that you’ve climbed all of them has have a resume says in there’s a world where they’re an NBA coach and I I like the idea of any of these guys taking over the Pistons uh yes any of these guys would be fine um will Weaver worked with Kenny ainson in Brooklyn and to answer your question Mike anori was here from 2018 to 2021 so he was here during the Dwayne Casey years um all these guys would be fine coaching options um Sean Sweeney developmental Mike anori another developmental guy working under Chris Finch with the Minnesota Timberwolves who by the way went to the Western Conference Finals Sweeney the Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks will Weaver works with the Brooklyn Nets right now I think he was hired last year Chris Quinn again mini Eric bolst sounds good to me I mean that’ll work and then Sam casselle another guy who seems like he’s he’s due for an opportunity as well and Kenny ainson you know came through the Brooklyn Nets uh meet grinder of trying to get that team out of the dog housee and building that up um some say he was fired unceremoniously to make way for I believe Steve Nash and um that you know may have been the wrong move but who is who is to say um so any of these guys will be fine with me um I I hope that the Pistons do take their time they don’t need a coach before the draft you know the front office is going to be able to make the decision on what they need based on the roster construction they don’t need a head coach’s input maybe if they start interviewing now you know they can ask for Coach input or thoughts or you know as it pertains to play style um but like I said any of these guys would be totally fine with me um gun to your head though if you had to pick a name off this list who are the Pistons going to hire oh boy I I think you know I’d like to say James bgo um but if he’s going to Cleveland you can’t say I will say that you know out of these names we know a couple of them do have connections to Tran langden specifically James bgo and then will Weaver and if you look at how the Pistons have operated in in the short few weeks under langon a lot of what they they have done is brought in langan’s guys you know they brought in Michael Blackstone they just brought in Fred Vincent for an assistant on the staff and he’s going to be there despite Monty Williams now being Let Go Des despite uh joining the staff when technically Williams was still the head coach so they’re bringing in guys that are connected to Langdon so I I I would say if if bgo doesn’t go to Cleveland you know maybe that that is is is the guy Detroit lands on because of the connections because of the relationship and he was he was being talked about you know before tryan lingan uh was named the Pistons president of basketball operations but let’s say burgo isn’t the guy I will say will Weaver I’ll go out in a limb and say langan’s going to continue uh in the order that he’s operated in since taking over and really bringing in the guys that he knows bringing in the guys that he has relationships with and this would be a firsttime NBA head coach a younger head coach that’s very much luded for being an upand Comer in the NBA coaching Circle so I’ll go out on a limb and I’ll say if it’s not James Bargo then it’ll be will Weaver and that’s not sourced that’s just me speculating I’m gonna go with Sean Sweeney um mostly due to his relationship with with Dwayne Casey who’s still in the front office um I think that Chris Quinn is a very close second just because he interviewed last year as well um so so he has a little bit of um history with interviewing with the Pistons but I mean you could you could make a case for any of these guys to get the opportunity to be the head coach so um just just because and and you know there’s other guys that are not on this list like bicker staff uh who I have seen plenty of and I think he’d be a fine option for a rebuilding team that’s what he was with Cleveland as the assistant at John B line um so I wouldn’t be upset if they looked at JB um I think he’s good for young players uh but it it’s it’s going to be a little while before they pick a head coach I think they’re going to give it some time to sift through all of their op you know all of their options um so it’s going to be something worth monitoring um but it’s not going to happen before the draft uh that seems to be sort of the unwritten aspect of all this um but that doesn’t mean the draft is going to slow down the draft is still next week um and this is the last podcast before the NBA draft uh so now it’s sort of time to talk about um it’s it’s time to talk about who the Pistons could be taking there there’s some guys they’ve been linked to there’s some guys they haven’t really been linked to as heavily um Zach roset Cody Williams Rob Dillingham TOS pelis um Dalton connect seems like he’s not gonna be a guy despite our love for him as as a vet Donovan klling and Stefan Castle doesn’t really seem like klling or Castle are on the radar as well um but it’s time to make our predictions for the draft and it’s super fluid um but who do you think the Pistons are gonna be taking at five I will say it’s very interesting to see the rise that Cody Williams has has has seen in the past uh week or so and and what’s being reported at NBA circles is that it wouldn’t be a surprise if he ends up going in the top five he’s been specifically linked to Detroit uh and it seems like there’s legitimate traction there I was very very big on Cody Williams early in the season uh at colle during the NCAA season he was playing I would say good basketball not great he then suffered an injury and and when he came back you know it was uh the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament he wasn’t quite the same player he was coming off the bench and just wasn’t having uh the same impact didn’t seem as comfortable he was still kind of a reach at you know as a top three top five pick back before the Pistons were you know not pick picking one um but we’re still you know in the you know in the undecided Lottery I’d say I’m a little less comfortable taking Williams now than I would have been had you come to me in you know February I think if I had to make the pick for Detroit uh thinking in Detroit’s way that it’ll end up being Matas velis yes there are connections there um with ar tellum with Michael tellum arum’s son being his agent buellis has been in for a workout has gotten good reviews he has seemingly risen up polls in um recent NBA draft evaluations so I could very much see him being the pick for Detroit if he’s not drafted at four um but that’s probably who the Pistons internally would have link linked as the favorite for the pick at five uh assuming I guess that Zachary rishe is off the board and if rishe is not uh off the board at five I don’t know how you pass him up it’s weird because in some mock drafts he’s going one in other mock drafts he’s slid to seven and that’s just how this draft is is viewed all of these prospects could go anywhere seemingly you know I think the only guy that seems like a lock to go in the top three is Alex SAR for whatever reason reason but everyone else is just kind of bouncing around like Reed Shepard is he going to be on the board at five is he going to be picked at like three to Houston so I mean there’s even talk about him going one to Atlanta that’s just how this draft is but you know looking at Detroit’s line of thinking look at at how Detroit’s operated I think that the the connections being drawn to to balis are strong and it would not surprise me if he’s the pick on Wednesday night yeah this is all like caveats on top of caveats SAR is the only guy who’s sort of linked to go at least one or two rashay dropped a four in a mock I saw to uh the San Antonio Spurs Donovan kingan was one in a mock draft I I believe that was from the athletic so like I said very fluid situation um if you had to rank those guys though it’s probably rashay one uh buellis 2 Cody Williams and Rob Dillingham fighting I’d probably rather have Cody Williams three and then Dillingham four just from a size perspective and based on the current roster construction um I still like d connect it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna happen I still like Donovan kingan doesn’t seem like it’s GNA happen um but super dependent on what the teams in front of Detroit do um so you’re going with bazis as your pick yeah and and and look I would very much like Balz and I mean if he had this talent and he had this skill he’d probably be the number one pick by a pretty wide margin but if if if he can become a legitimate shooter like there is a lot that he does well I I I don’t necessarily trust him you know putting the ball on the floor and and trying to get to the rim against a Defender like he’s not very tough or skilled with the ball in his hands and the shooting the numbers are much more uh you know theoretical from like playing in high school uh whereas in the gie he was not a good three-point shooter like there’s that whole he has a shooting touch but you can have a shooting touch but if if the numbers don’t show it if the ball doesn’t go in the hoop and that’s all just in theory so he has a lot of skills the size the athleticism like there could be a good NBA player in there but the concerns that I have for him having the ball in his hands and trying to do things with ball and the outside shooting are just legitimate concerns that I have there are certainly things that he’s going to do well and if he can become a legitimate floor spacer then he probably becomes one of the best prospects in this class and maybe that’s you know Detroit’s line of thinking is let’s really invest in the shooting development side Fred Vinson the assistant coach that they just brought in is so widely regarded for his three-point shooting his outside shooting development working on form working on hand placement maybe that’s where Detroit’s thinking is we know we have a guy coming in that has a track record of helping young guys develop fix their jump shot fix the mechanics and become reliable three-point Shooters he’s done it with Herbert Jones in in New Orleans he’s done it with a slew of other guys over there Jose Alvarado made significant progressions in his three-point shooting percentages the list goes on and on over there uh but that could be their line of thinking because they have a lot of guys on this roster that like they’ really like them to be good three-point Shooters and they kind of need them to be good three-point Shooters but they’re not yet and that’s kind of what they would be drafting again if they did take balis so uh maybe that’s their line of thinking balis does have a lot of other really good candid or excuse me qualities uh and if you can get him to become a good three-point shooter or a serviceable three-point shooter that makes him a much much better player yeah we didn’t even touch on Fred vinsent really and how they hired him independent of Monty williams’ future they hired him before obviously they fired him um this is very clearly a Tran Langdon hire not a Monty Williams hire it was originally tried to be spun as a Monty Williams hire which I don’t know who believe that but it was not this look yes they had a relationship but this so did so did Vincent and langon like I corre get that at all I didn’t get that either and there were some people on the beat who were pretty certain that that meant that Monty was staying which I don’t think any of us had felt that way but it was definitely very odd to go in that order um but I think that goes to show uh the the sort of the vision that langon has um it goes beyond Monty Williams clearly uh and getting a guy like Fred Vincent who’s very well regarded I saw a lot of people in the New Orleans Pelicans inner circles um disappointed that they lost him to the Pistons you know they if they regard it as a big loss the Pistons should be excited Pistons fans should be excited that they’re getting you know a quality coach that uh is going to come in and help a team that was a very poor shooting team but I think you’re right I think that’s sort of the game plan and they might be going into this offseason then you know anticipating having guys like Jane Ivy AAR Thompson and a guy like Bellis uh who are not really strong sters even a Cody Williams you know who I don’t think he had a whole lot of volume I think he did good three-point percentage at Colorado but it wasn’t quite the volume that you would expect out of a wing in today’s NBA um so that could be the vision they’re planning on having everybody back and tweaking around the margins which you know we’re gonna have to see this time next week we’re gonna we’re we we are going to know um and and we are going to be covering the draft in some fashion we don’t quite know yet but um we we will have some level of coverage uh for for next Wednesday for the NBA draft yeah I think I think the Fred Vincent hire is well a it’s obviously a really good hire like you said a lot of people in NBA circles were were lotting the Pistons for that hire talking about how great of a hire it was and there were a lot of people you know within the the Pelicans fan base the Pelicans Community talking about how much of a loss that was for them the only thing I’ll say is it is interesting that you’re hiring an assistant coach and then firing the head coach it’s like he’s being he’s staying with uh whoever this whatever this new staff is going to look like I don’t know what will happen with all of the assistants that were on you know Monty Williams staff I know that they’ve been present at workouts and whatnot U but but that’s certainly interesting and I know Vincent maybe isn’t as much of an ingame assistant coach as he is more of a Player Development coach in terms of you know during practice and and and offseason stuff you know so maybe that plays a factor of making that decision to bring in an assistant like that knowing that you’re going to be making change at at the head coach coaching spot but certainly a really really good hire for Detroit I think that has to be mentioned on the podcast it’s just so many things that you have to talk about it’s like we could have done a whole hour here today on on Monty Williams but it’s like y the draft is is five days away and it’s like no one’s even talking about it so you know that’s something that you know on Friday as the day this podcast comes out I’m going to be very curious to hear what Tran langon and Tom gors have to say at the podium on Wednesday what or on Friday what are they going to say about the draft what’s what’s their approach going to be I think the vibe that we’ve gotten from langon is that he’s interested in this core and keeping this youth movement going and you know that might Veer off from what we had initially been told to expect had it going had going into the off season with they’re likely being a move or two uh from from this young Corp with one or two of these guys being doubt that might not be the case anymore so I’m very very interested to hear what langon has to say for the first time certainly will be interested to hear what the owner Tom Gores has to say about the decision to bring in Langdon the decision to let go of Monty Williams and the future of this team I mean let’s face it so much has to happen still for this ball Club to even sniff relevancy and it starts on on Wednesday night at the NBA draft it sure does and here the um eulogy for Troy Weaver as well um we missed out on that uh interested to see what they say about Weaver because was very uh mutual agreement to part ways and not we fired this dude for just these 55 60 reasons um so definitely look forward to your assessment of Friday or today on uh what they have to say at the press conference um Aron any other plugs or things that you want to get off here before we wrap up this edition of the podcast yeah well I have plenty of stuff from the press conference on Friday uh on X a Johnson NBA and Palace of Pistons that’s where you can go follow us to to support a work over on X you can hit us up at Palace of pistons on YouTube on Facebook Instagram all those places make sure you’re going and hitting the Subscribe button all that stuff greatly greatly uh supports us and helps us and that’s my birthday wish is for all of us that listen to the show to go and help us out and subscribe and and continue to boost our numbers that are seeing a continuous Spike we love to see it we love the support and uh it’s a busy off season for the Pistons it’s going to continue to be with the draft in the coming days the coaching search that’s going to seemingly be going on both before and after the draft right after that it’s going to be summer league and free agency so so much to go during a very very busy a very very important offseason for the Detroit Pistons very very interesting to see everything that happens and we’ll have plenty of content covering it along the way and we want you to stick around with us for all of that coverage yes your favorite time of the year is Summer League that that is uh the Aaron Johnson staple love it he loves it he loves it um real quick before we go since this is sort of kind of relevant to the Pistons um give give a grade on the uh Alex Caruso for Josh giddy one for one swap wow I mean A+ for the Thunder I don’t know how they didn’t have to give up any picks in that deal Alex Caruso is like sort of the best version of Josh giddy I I I know giddy has much more playmaking chops but Caruso is like the top-of-the-line Defender has some three-point shooting abilities I mean what a home run get for them like you’re talking about getting rid of pretty much your worst rotation player in the playoffs and replacing him with a veteran defensive Ace that can shoot the ball all effort all intensity can guard the opposing team’s best player one through three maybe one through four like absolute home run G for the Thunder I do not understand that trade for the Bulls it feels like they should have been able to get a a pick alongside Josh giddy I mean we’re talking about you know the reports of the bulls not being willing to to trade Caruso for anything more or anything less than three first round picks and then they ended up with no first round picks in Josh giddy who just had a really really bad playoff performance so I’m not sure how the Bulls didn’t ensure that they got a first round pick from a team that had a million to spend I don’t understand what the Thunder are going to continue to do with all of those like they’ve got to have roster spots for all of these guys and the roster is pretty Chuck full of legitimate NBA players on it already so cannot believe the Bulls didn’t manage to get a first air I actually don’t even mind them getting Josh giddy I don’t think that’s a Terri decision that’s fine allow him to to be the lead guard allow him to to get big minutes as a starter as a true point guard wasn’t able to do that as much in OKC with Shay guildas Alexander over there and Jaylen Williams like I’m all for giving him that opportunity but you’ve got to get more with it I just don’t understand how Detroit misses there Aaron we have breaking news that’s relevant to the Detroit Pistons all right the show continues the show continues briefly the Pistons this is according to ESPN it’s Adrien wowski the Pistons have permission to interview Dallas assistant Sean Sweeney who we’ve already talked about uh and Minesota Timberwolves assistant Mike anori for the vacant head coaching position and the Pistons are also planning to interview Cleveland former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach JB bicker staff that was not source that came out of just my brain um but the Pistons are going to go ahead and give it a go with JB uh allegedly according to ESPN Aaron what do you think well look I’m not surprised I’m not surprised on Nori and Sweeney uh I’ll say I’m a little caught off guard by bigger staff but he wasn’t it absolutely terrible uh in Cleveland Mike I know you probably can speak on that more uh but W also said that Pistons are expected to call for permission on more assistance that they’d like to interview as well so I’m sure we’ll see a more expanded list with some of the names that we already mentioned here previously on the show uh look I the Pistons need to do their due diligence if they need to talk to 10 coaches if they need to talk to 15 coaches fine make sure you’re getting the right guy and and look Lang’s L Lon has a lot of relation ships in the NBA he has a lot of relationships across the league so he’s going to talk to a lot of guys I’m very very sure about that so look I think these are two assistants that we expected Detroit to talk to that we expected to be in the mix they have connections to Dwayne Casey they have connections to the organization and they are seemingly coaches that are on the rise trending towards being NBA head coaches at one point the Pistons might be that landing spot for them so I like it JB bicker staff we’ll see I can’t say that’s a name that jumps off the board of me as a guy that I’m absolutely uh you know saying Detroit needs to go get I’m actually curious what you would think on JB because you have a much closer view on him being a Cavaliers guy um so it’s not that JB was a bad coach necessarily I think he navigated very difficult Waters the John beine slug buug thugs Fiasco um he navigated the Kevin Porter Jr Fiasco that the Cavaliers had he navigated the Donovan Mitchell trade which was it’s not easy to assimilate a star um but he worked with a lot of young young players rookie Darius Garland worked with Colin seon he’s got experience in Houston and Memphis um I think he’s a fine option you know I said it during the show I think he’s a fine option he’s a guy with playoff experience he’s a guy that has connected to young players in the past um and I think he’s a good guy all around I think with with Cleveland it was less of you know he’s a bad coach it’s that they just needed a different voice in that locker room um and that’s why they moved on from JB JB was here for a while um pre pandemic I think so let me put you on the spot let me put you on the spot the same earlier if sorry Pistons hire JB bicker staff would that be a good hire for Detroit yeah I think so I do I mean I’m I’m fine with that I think he’s so if you say it I’m I’m good with it like I I think I think he’s an advanced version of some of those um Player Development type of guys because he also has playoff experience he went through the Player Development ERA with Isaac aoro and Garland uh and with Evan Mobley and they became a respectable core I mean he was getting Coach of the Year recognition when they made the play in uh and the first year they had Donovan Mitchell and obviously that played a huge part in it but I think he went through the ringer of trying to navigate a lottery bound team um connected with a lot of the young guys and then worked his all worked his way all the way up to winning a playoff series and they just kind of ran out of steam I mean there there’s a scenario in which they don’t fire JB and they chalk it up to the fact that they didn’t have Jared Allen they had Donovan Mitchell on one leg and they had you know a Darius Garland who wasn’t fully healthy either and say you know that’s the reason to keep them um he just kind of ran out of time in Cleveland I don’t think it’s a like a coaching deficiency thing it’s a he just ran out of time and his voice started to fall on deaf ears but I think that would be a fine hire um and W made an interesting point of that they’re gonna get to interview him first because he’s going have greater access um whatever that means but yeah I think he’d be a fine okay well I’ll be interested to see what other information comes out on who Detroit’s Detroit talks to I’m sure you’re going to see some more names from the guys that we already talked about today Quinn will Weaver uh James rego’s available Kenny Atkinson it’s a deep list there’s a lot of candidates out there despite you know there only being a few teams that are really in in search for a head coach right now they’re still still a guy out there for Detroit despite it being what I would say is pretty late in the game considering we are heading into the final week of June so lot to happen for Detroit here and uh glad we got to break that news here on the show because I know people are going to have some thoughts I’m curious who everyone else wants the Pistons to hire as as the team side coach I know there are going to be some very spirited spirited thoughts from a very spirited Detroit Pistons fan base and a very spirited pal of Pistons commentary section let us know what you think who do you want the Pistons to hire as a head coach and are you good with Monty Williams being fired I know are some of you out there that wanted Williams to get another shot you’re crazy but I still want to know why because sometimes your your curiosity kills me I don’t know it’s absolutely bizarre that you believe he should get another year but tell me why in the comment section yes tell us why we’re wrong when you’re actually wrong um no I’m just kidding everyone everyone is entitled to their own opinion and please go ahead and uh let us know who you want to be the next head coach of the Detroit Piston so this end up turning into a little bit longer of of a of a show me putting you on the spot about a about Alex kuso extended us into the breaking news portion so maybe maybe that’s the secret sauce to get like a big move in the middle of a podcast because I I I want a reaction with you and Jasper and like hands on the head meme stuff that we can use for social yes exactly yeah or even like a like a Brian windhorse what does it mean yeah um type of deal um Aon that’s G to do it for this edition of the podcast do you have anything else you want to close on I know that you already did your closing thoughts like 10 minutes ago I’ll just say it again you know for my birthday please just hit the Subscribe button subscribe to palop pistons.com love and appreciate all the support everyone don’t disappoint Aaron for his birthday how dare you subscribe to us on substack well that’s going to do it for this edition of the palis of Pistons podcast like to thank our sponsor of this week’s show that’s been online and again uh you can use our promo code believe bav for a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit you use bet online for Aaron Johnson I am Mike angano thank you so much for joining us on this week’s edition of The Palace Pistons podcast part of the Bel Network and we will see you all next [Music] time WI

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On this week’s edition of the Palace of Pistons Podcast, Mike Anguilano and Aaron Johnson are back to discuss the latest surrounding the Detroit Pistons. First, the guys react to the Detroit Pistons finally firing Monty Williams as the team’s head coach after just one season. The guys discuss a number of candidates for the open head coach position including Micah Nori, Sean Sweeney, and James Borrego. Then, the guys preview the NBA Draft for Detroit, which is less than a week away. Mike and Aaron predict who the Pistons will select with the 5th pick in the draft.

Links:

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