Jon Kuester fired from Pistons

[The NBA Realist]

Was Kuester the victim of poor management? Or was he simply a poor manager?

My thoughts are probably a bit of both. However, Dumars signing Gordon and Villanueva to ridiculous contracts certainly didn't help anyone's cause. Nor did the player led protests which served as an all-time low for one of the more storied franchises.

As a Bulls fan, there is something off when the Pistons are not competitive.

[alex]

as a pistons fan, i feel you on the last point.

the problem was not with kuester. no doubt he was a poor coach at best, but he got more out of that team than most not named red auerbach could have. the problem can easily be directed at dumars, which is certainly deserved. he is an overrated manager at best, slightly egotistical and respected for only one deal (rasheed) when his blunders (ai, darko) have far outweighed that, setting the team back maybe two years. yet the blame shouldn't fall on him, either.

the problem is the OWNERSHIP. bill davidson was the nba's most underrated owner perhaps ever. davidson could pack an arena every night and was driven to win no matter what the bottom line looked like. he was the reason we got chauncey, rip, chuck daly and the bad boys teams in the 1980s. dumars gets no credit in my book on that, it was obvious davidson kept himself involved in the team. sadly, davidson died in 2009. his estate took control of the team shortly there after.

from 2009 onwards, the team has been centered on staying in the green. dumars burns money as soon as he gets it (see villenueva/gordon) and seems lost with coaching (michael curry? john kuester?). the palace is empty almost 2/3rds of the nights, and i havent been to a game since early october last year. the team is miserable. the ownership continues to make questionable decisions (8th pick and rip to the cavs, perhaps??). fortunately, the team got sold.

forget kuester, curry, iverson, villenueva, gordon and darko. as the pistons motto use to be, let's get back to "going to work, every night."