Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy was unimpressed with his team after showing plenty of promise at the end of last season.
Having put forward a valiant effort in a four-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons were one of the of the few hopeful teams in the East to fare better in the standings and aim at a potential first-round win due to their grit on the defensive end.
The Motor City was rather underwhelmed after the return of point guard Reggie Jackson, who made matters worse and affected the chemistry the team had acquired with reverse point man Ish Smith.
“This has been a very tough year for me. It's not steady progress,” Van Gundy told Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “If you flipped these two years and last year was a 37-2in year, coming off 32 wins (in 2015) and didn't get eliminated until April — that would have been progress.”
“There are some things there — I'm not going to get into specifics — that have become more and more clear to me that need to change.”
The roster now consists of two of the team's highest paid players underperforming from last season's standards, namely Jackson and center Andre Drummond.
Beard and ESPN' Ian Begley concurred that the team's MVP has been Tobias Harris, last season's mid-season acquisition that has managed a respectable campaign despite alternating roles between starter and sixth man — stating the offense should be revolved around him and his scoring talents, rather than a point-and-center offensive system.
Van Gundy insists the solution to this team does not lie in cleaning house and starting over with different pieces.
“For me, being on the coaching side of it, when you're coming into this game with only 37 wins, part of you is saying blow this thing up and get started all over, but that's not the prudent course to take,” said Van Gundy. “It doesn't mean you don't make changes, but to blow everything up and go away from everything you've been doing because you had a tough year is not necessarily the way to go.”
The long-tenured coach admitted part of the team's failure was his fault as well, expressing hope for next season and taking on the challenge to make this roster a winning one next season.
“I still feel like we're moving in the right direction, but there were some things I didn't do a good job of that we have to change,” he said. “This has been a year of misery for me, but I still want the challenge and want to keep going forward and I still feel confident we're on the right track.”
“Our philosophy is right and we can get this turned back around in the direction that we want.”
Follow Us
Subscribe