 |
| Stan Van Gundy |
Stan Van Gundy can coach. Van Gundy's a recycled coach liberated from the NBA scrapheap, cleaned, polished and passed off as a fresh new vision for what would be his third team.
The Spurs' Gregg Popovich became head coach after already holding the general manager title, and his team has a trusted player evaluation system in place. Van Gundy himself must be directly involved.
Both the coaching and franchise supervision could suffer under those conditions.
I'm sure he's pleased that he snatched Van Gundy away from the Warriors with the promise of organizational control. Van Gundy lost previous battles with management in regards to his occasionally combative coaching style. He butted heads with Dwight Howard as the Orlando Magic's head coach, ultimately leading to his dismissal two years ago.
Stan Van Gundy, the former Miami Heat and Orlando Magic coach, has reached an agreement with the Pistons to take over as both coach and head of basketball operations, a person with firsthand knowledge of the Pistons' plans told the Detroit Free Press. Van Gundy, 54, has a 371-208 (.641) record as a head coach. But Gores is taking the bold step of giving Van Gundy total control over personnel.
The person added that a general manager would be hired to report directly to Van Gundy.
 |
| Stan Vangundy |
The Golden State Warriors were interested in Van Gundy for their coaching vacancy, as USA TODAY Sports reported, but can't offer the allure of final call on personnel decisions.
Van Gundy will join the Los Angeles Clippers' Doc Rivers and San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich as the only coaches with full authority over personnel decisions. Coaching and acquiring personnel often require different skill sets — a coach might have desires that result in short-term gain where an executive has to weigh long-term ramifications.
The Detroit Pistons have signed Stan Van Gundy to a contract make him their new coach and president of basketball operations, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.
Despite strong interest from the Golden State Warriors, who sources say had established Van Gundy as their top target to succeed the ousted Mark Jackson, Detroit managed to trump Van Gundy's hometown team with the offer of personnel control on top of coaching duties.
Sources indicated earlier Tuesday that the Warriors were resigned to Van Gundy accepting Detroit's substantial offer, which, prompted Golden State officials to immediately head to Oklahoma City to make one last attempt to convince Steve Kerr to walk away from his expected deal to coach the New York Knicks.
 |
| Stan Van |
After also firing first-year coach Maurice Cheeks just 50 games into the season, Pistons owner Tom Gores settled on Van Gundy and elected to give him final say over basketball decisions -- despite Van Gundy's lack of front-office experience -- to trump the lure of going back to his native Northern California to coach the Warriors, who won 51 games during the regular season and sport a more attractive overall roster headlined by established superstar Stephen Curry.
The fate of Pistons interim coach John Loyer was not immediately known, but Loyer is under contract with Detroit for one more season.
ESPN.com reported shortly after Golden State's first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Clippers that Kerr and Van Gundy were the Warriors' two preferred targets.
In eight full seasons as a coach in Miami and Orlando, Van Gundy never had a losing record. "Part of me does, and part of me doesn't," Van Gundy told the radio station.
