The Detroit Pistons fired Stan Van Gundy this week after missing the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. Initially, the reports were that Pistons owner Tom Gores wanted Van Gundy to come back and coach out the final year of his five-year $35 million deal, while Gores made material changes to the front office.
There seemed to be optimism from both parties that Van Gundy would return as head coach, until Monday when the Pistons announced that the team was prepared to move in a different direction.
Rod Beard of The Detroit News reports that Van Gundy was willing to return to the team with a singular and defined role to better help the team.
Following from The Detroit News,
“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 coaching,” Van Gundy said. “I didn’t fight to hang on to that at all. I was more than willing to just move over into the other role.”
Van Gundy, as a coach, accumulated a record of 152-176 in his four seasons as the Piston’s head coach. The team made the playoffs in 2016, there only appearance under Van Gundy, getting swept in four games by the eventual champions Cleveland Cavaliers.
According to Beard, for Van Gundy, the decision leading up to his firing was predicated on his less than stellar win-loss record.
“We talked about a lot of different things but what it really comes down to is 37 wins and 39 wins and missing the playoffs twice,” Van Gundy told The Detroit News. “You can talk about a lot of other things, but if we’re in the playoffs, we’re not doing any of this and we’re moving on. We just didn’t win enough games.”
