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The Detroit Pistons are doing their due diligence amid their search for former head coach Dwane Casey‘s replacement and assistant coach Jerome Allen has surfaced as a candidate to fill the vacancy (h/t Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports).
An in-house hire if promoted to head coach, Allen has spent the last two seasons in Detroit under Casey. Prior to joining the Pistons, Allen spent six seasons with the Boston Celtics under head coach Brad Stevens.
The Detroit Pistons will interview assistant Jerome Allen this week, sources tell @YahooSports. Allen has spent time with Detroit with Dwane Casey and Boston on Brad Stevens’ staffs. Highly-regarded amongst players in both organizations
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) April 18, 2023
The fact that the 5o-year-old Allen is a popular candidate among players could aid him plenty when it comes to balancing out what will likely be doubts about his ability to run a young but talented team.
Compared to confirmed and potential candidates like Nick Nurse, Kenny Atkinson, Frank Vogel, or even Ime Udoka, Allen has no NBA head coaching experience to speak of. To that point, the players need more than a person that they respect or get along with to reach their potential, they need a coach whose organization, preparation, and ideas are as worthy of him being a head coach as other candidates.
What Allen does have going for him aside from a glowing reputation among players and the potential to be a proverbial ‘player's coach,' is 14 years of experience as a professional player after being selected 49th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft.
As a result, the prevailing theory surrounding Allen at this point would have to be that he's someone that knows what he's talking about when it comes to the x's and o's. Furthermore, his overseas experience not only leads to having an interesting network but the potential implementation of unique ideas.
