Stan Van Gundy Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pistons Part Ways With GM Jeff Bower

June 1st, 2018 at 3:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons have decided to cut ties with GM Jeff Bower, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.

Bower was hired to be Stan Van Gundy’s right-hand man when he took charge four summers ago. Owner Tom Gores fired Van Gundy last month and is currently conducting a search for a coach and front-office executive.

Ed Stefanski was hired last week as a senior advisor in charge of overhauling the team’s basketball operations. Van Gundy served as both head coach and president of basketball operations but Gores now wants separation between the two jobs.

Bower had continued his duties after Van Gundy’s departure but his contract was expiring at the end of June and Gores had to make a decision whether to retain him or move on.

Searches to fill the coaching and front office vacancies are ongoing.

On the coaching front, the team has lined up or already interviewed TNT analyst Kenny Smith, Heat assistant Juwan Howard, Spurs assistant Ime Udoka, Michigan coach John Beilein and former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.

Nets assistant Trajan Langdon , TNT analyst Brent Barry, Hawks executive Malik Rose, Grizzlies assistant Tayshaun Prince and ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups are among the candidates for the front-office job.

Southeast Notes: Hornets, Haslem, Van Gundy

May 11th, 2018 at 11:01pm CST by Austin Kent

According to general manager Mitch Kupchak, the Hornets have no immediate plans to blow up their roster. As Steve Reed of The Associated Press writes, recently appointed head coach James Borrego will approach his first season with the team under the assumption that there is no dramatic overhaul right around the corner.

“I’m excited about that current group as it stands right now. I think our biggest room for growth is the internal development piece,” Borrego said. Given the Hornets’ lack of financial flexibility – they have $120 already tied up for next season – they may not have any other choice.

There were several calls for dramatic action last season as a short-staffed Hornets team limped its way to a second consecutive lottery appearance. In fact, things were so dire that mid-season the club’s previous executive team even said the franchise would consider trading star guard Kemba Walker.

Among the young players that could be developed by Borrego and the rest of the Hornets staff in 2018/19 are 2017 lottery pick Malik Monk, as well as other established rotation players like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, 24, and third-year big man Frank Kaminsky.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

The Wizards signed forward Otto Porter to a four-year, $107MM contract last offseason. With that increased salary has come increased scrutiny, Candace Buckner of The Washington Post writes. Porter excelled as a three-point shooter in 2017/18 but was criticized for lacking aggressiveness in the fourth quarter.
Veteran Heat big man Udonis Haslem hasn’t made a decision about retirement yet but he does know that when that time comes, he has no interest in coaching. He would, however, be open to serving in Miami’s front office, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.
Some Magic fans have contemplated the idea of bringing back former head coach Stan Van Gundy. David Whitley of The Orlando Sentinel writes that a reunion with the bench boss who led Dwight Howard and company to the Finals back in 2009 would not be a good idea.

Pistons Notes: Van Gundy, Jackson, Coaching Search, Izzo

May 10th, 2018 at 11:03pm CST by marksuleymanov

Stan Van Gundy and the Pistons parted ways this week, putting the organization in the market for a head coach. As for Van Gundy, he still had one year left on his contract with the Pistons. However, that does not put him out of running for other coaching opportunities, per Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.

“If the right situation came along, I wouldn’t dismiss it,” Van Gundy said. “I’m not going out on the terms I would like.”

Ellis notes that there no restrictions on Van Gundy pursuing other opportunities as a head coach, even though there’s still one year left on his Pistons contract. Van Gundy has an extensive coaching resume, which includes stints with the Heat, Magic, and Pistons. Van Gundy led the 2009 Magic to the NBA Finals but lost to the Lakers. During his stint with the Pistons, the team only made the postseason once, which prompted Detroit to explore making changes.

Check out more Pistons notes down below:

Reggie Jackson has not been healthy the past two seasons, missing 30 games last season and 37 games this season due to injury. In an interview with Rod Beard of the Detroit News, Jackson expressed regret for not being able to help his team and former head coach by being healthy and effective on the court. “Being injured the past few years, I wish I could have done more and been healthy more to help us win games and to secure our future as a whole and (Van Gundy’s) future,” Jackson said. “I wish we could have been better the past few years and not have to get to this point.”
Michigan State president John Engler said that Tom Izzo, the school’s basketball head coach, will remain a Spartan for life and will not pursue the Pistons’ head coaching vacancy, tweets David Jesse of the Detroit Free Press.
Keith Langlois of Pistons.com breaks down the upcoming NBA calendar and how it will impact the Pistons’ search for a head coach.

Pistons Notes: Van Gundy, Bower, Billups, More

May 8th, 2018 at 11:43am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of his dismissal by the Pistons on Monday, Stan Van Gundy indicated that he wouldn’t dismiss the idea of returning to coaching in “the right situation.” He reiterated that stance in a text message to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel, but stressed that his interest in landing another job with an NBA team doesn’t extend beyond coaching.

“[I’m] not interested in a front office role,” Van Gundy wrote.

Let’s round up a few more notes on the Pistons, with a focus on SVG…

A source tells Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press that GM Jeff Bower, whose contract ends on June 30, will run the front office on an interim basis. Only one member of the coaching staff and front office – assistant coach Rex Walters – has a contract that extends past June 30, according to Ellis.
Multiple sources tell Ellis – within that same story – that it wasn’t quite right to say Van Gundy was resisting a change to his role, as ESPN reported last week, since specific changes hadn’t yet been discussed. For his part, SVG said on Monday that he would’ve been interested in continuing to coach the Pistons without the president of basketball operations title.
Four years after they hired Van Gundy to run the show in Detroit, the Pistons should be able to make a stronger pitch to front office and coaching candidates this time around, in the view of Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. As Langlois notes, in 2014, the Pistons were coming off a five-year run in which they hadn’t surpassed the 30-win mark — the current squad has immediate playoff potential.
The Pistons’ decision to wait until nearly four weeks after the 2017/18 regular season ended to move on from Van Gundy is a reflection of the club’s poor leadership at the top, says Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports.
Ansar Khan of MLive.com explores whether hiring Chauncey Billups to a key front office role is the right move for the Pistons.

Van Gundy Disappointed, Wants To Coach Again

May 7th, 2018 at 7:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

7:52pm: Van Gundy was willing to give up his front office duties and just coach the team next season, Rod Beard of the Detroit News tweets.

“When it came down to this, I was perfectly willing to only go in one role and to give up the front office and go into (just) coaching. I didn’t fight to hang on to that at all,” he told Beard.

5:40pm: Stan Van Gundy said he’s disappointed but not bitter that the Pistons cut ties with him on Monday, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press tweets. Owner Tom Gores parted ways with Van Gundy as both head coach and president of basketball operations when they couldn’t come to an agreement on proposed changes Gores wanted to make.

Van Gundy, who was entering the final year of his five-year contract, admitted he wanted to fulfill the rest of the contract and sees how much the team could improve next season with Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson playing together regularly. The Pistons traded for Griffin in late January when Jackson was sidelined with an ankle injury and Griffin sat out the last eight games with an ankle injury. The trio only played four games together.

“To not get a chance to coach a full season after the (Griffin) move we made is disappointing to me. I’m not bitter and I was treated well,” Van Gundy told Ellis. “I’ve got no complaints.”

Van Gundy also said he would like to coach again if he found something to his liking. “If the right situation came along, I wouldn’t dismiss it,” he said. “I’m not going out on the terms I would like.”

That comes somewhat as a surprise, considering that Van Gundy told Hoops Rumors and other reporters in April that he was set for life and would probably retire if he didn’t return next season.

Pistons Seek Experienced Exec To Replace Van Gundy

May 7th, 2018 at 5:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Former NBA agent and current franchise chairman Arn Tellem will be involved in the process and could have an expanded role in business operations but is not a candidate to replace Van Gundy as president or Jeff Bower as GM, Wojnarowski continues. Bower’s continuing role was apparently the main point of contention between Gores and Van Gundy, with Gores pushing for front-office changes and Van Gundy offering resistance.

Bower, who has run the day-to-day operations since Van Gundy took over, met separately with Gores last week, Wojnarowski adds. Like Van Gundy, he was also entering the final year of his five-year contract.

Brent Barry, currently a broadcaster with TNT, is a candidate for a front office role but it’s unlikely he would be hired to run the show, given Gores’ desire to hire a more experienced hand, according to Wojnarowski. The Warriors were interested in hiring Barry to a front office position last summer but his TV commitments prevented him from making the move, ESPN’s Zach Lowe reports. Once Barry’s TV obligations are fulfilled, the Pistons will have competition for his services, Lowe adds (Twitter link).

Pistons Part Ways With Stan Van Gundy

May 7th, 2018 at 12:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons have decided to move on from head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy, a source tells Vincent Ellis of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). The team will immediately initiate a search for a new head coach and a new head of basketball ops, Ellis adds (Twitter link).

A report last week hinted at this move, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski indicated at the time that Pistons owner Tom Gores wanted to bring back Van Gundy as the team’s head coach, but with changes to the front office. Van Gundy was said to be resisting that change to his basketball operations position, and it seems the two sides couldn’t find common ground on a compromise. Gores and the Pistons have confirmed the move in a press release.

“We have decided that this change is necessary to take our basketball organization to the next level,” Gores said in a statement. “This was a very difficult decision and we did not come to it lightly. I am grateful to Stan for everything he’s done for the Pistons and for the City of Detroit. He rebuilt the culture of our basketball team, re-instilled a winning attitude and work ethic, and took us to the playoffs two years ago. He went all-in from day one to positively impact this franchise and this community. But over the past two seasons our team has not progressed, and we decided that a change is necessary to regain our momentum.”

Hired by the Pistons in 2014, Van Gundy had a 152-176 (.463) regular season record during his four years with the club. The club only earned one postseason berth during that stretch, and was swept out of the first round during that lone playoff appearance in 2016.

Van Gundy’s job security had been a source of speculation for much of the 2017/18 campaign, with his contract set to expire in 2019. After posting a disappointing 37-45 record in 2016/17, the Pistons only improved marginally this season, finishing at 39-43 and missing the postseason for a second consecutive year.

At season’s end, Van Gundy and some Pistons players expressed confidence that the club is capable of taking a step forward next year if it can get healthy seasons from Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Andre Drummond, but it appears another coach – and head of basketball operations – will ultimately determine whether that’s the case.

According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the Pistons will conduct separate searches for a new head coach and head of basketball operations, as those positions will no longer be shared by one individual. Detroit is the third team to go in that direction within the last year or so — in 2017, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers and Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer had their president of basketball operations titles removed.

Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that Brent Barry is expected to receive strong consideration for a role in Detroit’s revamped front office. As ESPN’s Zach Lowe notes (via Twitter), Barry was an Arn Tellem client when he was a player and Tellem was an agent — Tellem now holds a top position on the business operations side of the Pistons’ organization, and will have a significant say in the team’s search for a new coach and head of basketball ops, tweets Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago.

It’s not clear yet how far the Pistons’ changes will extend beyond Van Gundy — GM Jeff Bower reportedly met with Gores last week, but it remains to be seen whether or not he’ll be back.

The Pistons will become the fifth NBA team actively searching for a new head coach, as we detailed earlier today.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Central Notes: Pistons, T. Young, Free Agents, Bucks

May 5th, 2018 at 5:14pm CST by Arthur Hill

If the Pistons are going to make changes to their coaching staff or front office, they will probably happen in the next 10 days, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. Preparation for the draft begins to intensify with the lottery on May 15, followed by the opening of the combine two days later. The Pistons will want to have their management issues resolved by then, even though their first-rounder is headed to the Clippers without some lottery luck.

GM Jeff Bower met with majority owner Tom Gores on Thursday, Ellis adds, amid reports that structural changes are being considered to the front office. Bower and coach/president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy, who also met with Gores this week, are both entering the final year of their contracts.

Ellis speculates that the longer the situation drags on, the less likely it is that Van Gundy returns for another season. He notes that Gores is unhappy about the way the team has managed its salary cap, particularly with generous contracts for role players Jon Leuer [four years, $42 million] and Langston Galloway [three years, $21 million].

There’s more from the Central Division:

Watching the Eastern semifinals has been a painful experience for Thaddeus Young and his Pacers teammates, relays Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. The Indiana players are still reeling after dropping a tough seven-game series to the Cavaliers, and they believe they could be on their way to the conference finals if they had gotten by Cleveland. Young adds that he hasn’t decided whether to opt out of a $13,764,045 salary for next season, but he believes the Pacers are headed for even better things. “Man, I think the sky is the limit for us,” he said. “As a team, we’re already pretty good, but I think we’ll be so much better entering next season because we’ll all have another year of experience under our belt and we won’t be a new-look team that just got together anymore.”
The Pacers need to add a 3-point shooter in free agency, observes J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star, who examines potential targets for this summer. Indiana should have roughly $10MM to spend, even if Young opts in, which could be enough to land Wayne Ellington, Joe Harris or Marco Belinelli.
The Bucks are in position to trim some money from their roster heading into free agency, according to Fox Sports Wisconsin. Brandon Jennings [$2,222,803], Tyler Zeller [$1,933,941] and Malcolm Brogdon [$1,544,951] all have non-guaranteed contracts for next season, although Brogdon, a former Rookie of the Year, is expected to be brought back.

Central Notes: Love, Van Gundy, Pistons, Parker

May 3rd, 2018 at 10:56pm CST by marksuleymanov

The Cavaliers lead the Raptors in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup, 2-0, as the series shifts to Cleveland. Kevin Love helped his case with 31 points in a Game 2 victory after struggling for most of the playoffs. As the postseason progresses, the Cavaliers’ coaching staff will need to monitor Love’s play at the center and power forward position, Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com writes.

“We’ve been very successful with Kev at the 5, but we have to listen to what Kev needs as well,” teammate LeBron James said. “If there’s times throughout the postseason or a game where he’s feeling a little worn down because he’s battling with a lot of bigs, then we’ve got to make the substitution properly. I think Coach Lue has done that, obviously with the start of Game 7, being able to start Double T at the five and allow Kev to play his natural position.”

Check out more Central Division notes:

The Pistons would like to bring back Stan Van Gundy, but with an adjusted role. After missing the playoffs for the past several seasons, it may be time for both sides to part amicably, Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News opines.
There were 12 teams that had the chance to draft Donovan Mitchell before he fell to the Jazz and had a historically great rookie season. Looking back, the Pistons not selecting Mitchell is right up there with the Darko Milicic blunder from 2003, Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press writes.
After two torn ACLs and a frustrating showing in the postseason, Jabari Parker‘s value is not at an all-time high heading into the summer. As a restricted free agent, it’s possible Parker’s tenure with the Bucks is over. Frank Urbina of HoopsHype breaks down Parker’s four best choices in free agency.
As the Lakers enter the summer with major cap space and an eye on the NBA’s premier free agents, Mark Schanowski of NBC Sports Chicago examines the possibility of the Bulls pursuing Brandon Ingram in a trade.

Pistons’ Stan Van Gundy Resisting Adjusted Role

May 1st, 2018 at 3:38pm CST by Luke Adams

Pistons owner Tom Gores would like to bring back Stan Van Gundy as the team’s head coach for the 2018/19 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. However, Wojnarowski reports that Gores would like to make structural changes to the front office, and Van Gundy is “resisting” those adjustments for the time being.

As Wojnarowski notes, Van Gundy isn’t just the Pistons’ head coach — he also holds the title of president of basketball operations, giving him full authority over player personnel and staffing decisions.

In recent years, we’ve seen multiple coaches with those dual titles have their responsibilities dialed back, including Doc Rivers with the Clippers and Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks last offseason. However, Van Gundy doesn’t appear to be entirely on board with that idea.

It’s not clear what sort of specific structural changes Gores would like to make, but he and Van Gundy have been discussing a way to move forward together for the last couple weeks, Wojnarowski writes. Some of those conversations have centered on the future role of GM Jeff Bower, who is scheduled to meet separately with Gores this week, sources tell Woj.

While Van Gundy has one year left on his contract with the Pistons, several of his assistants – along with Bower – are currently in the final year of their deals, so the team will have plenty of decisions to make on who will and won’t be back.

After posting a disappointing 37-45 record in 2016/17, the Pistons only improved marginally in 2017/18, finishing at 39-43 and missing the postseason for a second consecutive year. At season’s end, Van Gundy and some Pistons players expressed confidence that the club is capable of taking a step forward next year if it can get healthy seasons from Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin, and Andre Drummond, and it appears Gores would like to see Van Gundy return to coach that core. However, it remains unclear whether the two sides will come to an agreement on possible changes to the front office.