So what have you done for us lately, Rick Carlisle?
His Detroit Pistons went from 32-50 to consecutive 50-win seasons, a division championship and a berth in the Eastern Conference finals. Carlisle was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2001-02.
But what have you done for us in the last five minutes?
Perhaps that was the discussion at Pistons headquarters.
Carlisle, probably the top young coach in the NBA, was fired Saturday. The Pistons are expected to replace him with former 76ers coach Larry Brown.
The Pistons have called a news conference for Monday, reportedly to announce the hiring of Brown, whose team lost to Carlisle’s Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Brown, linked in the last week alone to coaching jobs in Houston, Washington and Los Angeles, is supposed to get a five-year, $25 million contract.
But with the sudden and stunning dismissal of Carlisle, Brown is said to be having second thoughts, which some believe is a ploy to drive his annual salary beyond $7 million.
“It was not an easy decision at all,” Joe Dumars, the Pistons’ president of basketball operations, said at a news conference Saturday in Auburn Hills, Mich., with Carlisle in attendance. “This is not about Larry Brown. This is about Rick Carlisle. If you ask me to justify firing a guy after two 50-win seasons, I’m not going to be able to do that.”
Nine NBA head-coach jobs are open. Brown has been linked to most of them. Detroit’s is the most shocking.
Carlisle is widely believed to have gotten the most out of limited talent with the Pistons. There have been rumors that Dumars and Carlisle had differences over rotations and the use of young players such as Tayshaun Prince and Mehmet Okur. But sources say Dumars had no intention of firing Carlisle, who has one year left on his contract.
The move may have been ordered by Pistons owner Bill Davidson, an unpredictable man who banished the popular Isiah Thomas from the organization 10 years ago.
Carlisle, 42, is considered somewhat aloof and is said to have alienated the owner with his standoffish personality. He loathed attending sponsor functions and meeting with season ticket-holders, and he kept Davidson’s corporate staff away from the basketball operation.
Personality issues were among the reasons Carlisle was passed over for the Indiana Pacers coaching job when Larry Bird left.
Bird lobbied for Carlisle, one of his assistants, and Pacers management suggested Carlisle try to improve his sometimes rocky relations with players and staff if he wanted a chance at the job. Ownership opted for the more gregarious Thomas anyway.
But Carlisle’s coaching ability has never been questioned. With a roster consisting of role players and limited-skill veterans, his Pistons performed well-beyond expectations. That raises an interesting question about Brown, whose specialty is taking over underachieving teams and getting the players to extend their abilities.
There’s probably little more to get out of the current Pistons. They have the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, and Dumars has indicated they’ll take European 7-footer Darko Milicic, who is only 17.
Brown tends to prefer veterans. He also had been talking to other teams about personnel control, which he won’t have in Detroit with Dumars.
There’s a chance Carlisle could be named Portland’s coach. He was an assistant there from 1994 through 1997, and Portland might be more inclined to let Maurice Cheeks go to Philadelphia with Carlisle available.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers have offered Jeff Van Gundy their vacant head coaching job, according to several NBA sources.
Team owner Gordon Gund has agreed to give the former New York Knicks coach a five-year contract believed to be worth $25 million after negotiating with his agent, Jim Ornstein, this past week, the sources said.
Van Gundy is mulling the offer, waiting to see how the coaching search plays out for the Houston Rockets, with which he is also a candidate. Van Gundy said Thursday he is only 50 percent sure he’ll return to coaching next year. No official announcement on his decision is expected by the Cavaliers until early next week.
