The NBA coaching carousel keeps going around.
The Detroit Pistons are hiring JB Bickerstaff to replace Monty Williams as head coach, according to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
JB Bickerstaff to become Pistons’ new head coach, sources say @YahooSportsIt was between Bickerstaff and former Pistons assistant Sean Sweeney, who is in Dallas.
Woj first on the report
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) June 30, 2024
Bickerstaff, 45, was recently fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers after leading them to two straight playoff appearances. In five years in Cleveland, he had a 170-159 coaching record.
This is the first major hire for Trajan Langdon, the Pistons’ new president of basketball operations. He was hired in late May after five years as general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans. He and Bickerstaff will be in charge of rebuilding the Pistons after a 14-68 season, the worst in franchise history.
Bickerstaff, who will be Detroit’s third coach in three seasons, has his work cut out for him. The Pistons won an NBA-worst 14 games under Williams last season, which wasn’t what the team expected right after Williams signed one of the richest coaching contracts in NBA history. (They also probably didn’t expect the team under Williams to go on a 28-game losing streak, the longest in NBA history.)
Theoretically, it wouldn’t take much for Bickerstaff to outperform Williams, as every team in the NBA except the Pistons and Washington Wizards won at least 21 games last season. Though Bickerstaff is currently in much the same position Williams was a year ago: hired by the Pistons after being fired from a much more successful team.
Will Bickerstaff be able to do more with the NBA’s worst team than Williams? We’ll have to wait and see.
