Greatest head coach in Detroit Pistons history: Chuck Daly, 1983-92
For a franchise started back in 1948, the Detroit Pistons did a lot of losing for over three decades. Upon moving to Detroit in 1957, the team had a total of three winning seasons in the next 26 seasons. Then, the franchise hired Chuck Daly as its head coach.
Daly was not a superstar coach when he joined the Pistons, nor even a successful one. He went 9-32 in his only NBA head coaching stint before taking the Pistons job. Daly was most recently a broadcaster with the Philadelphia 76ers before Detroit hired him.
The change was immediate, as Daly took a team that had missed the playoffs for six consecutive seasons and immediately lifted them back into the postseason. In 10 seasons at the helm, the Pistons made the playoffs 10 times, winning at least 46 games every season and hitting the high-mark of 63 in 1988-89.
Daly’s Pistons, who gained the nickname “Bad Boys” and embraced that identity, broke through the iron hold Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics had on the Eastern Conference. Detroit won a title in 1989 and held off the rising tide of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls long enough to win a second in 1990.
Larry Brown is a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach who won a title for the team, but he took a great team (50 wins the year before) and got them over the hump. That’s an impressive feat, but not as impressive as taking a losing franchise and turning them completely around. Rick Carlisle and Flip Saunders sandwiched Brown and both were very successful as well.
By the time he left the team in 1993, Daly had won 467 regular-season games with the team over 10 seasons, including another 71 postseason contests. Not only did he bring the team two titles, but he had enough respect among the league to be named the head coach for the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” despite his star player Isiah Thomas being frozen out of the roster by Jordan.
Daly found the perfect combination of roster and situation. He took full advantage, forming a dynasty and one of basketball history’s most well-known teams. He is the clear-cut choice for the best head coach in Pistons franchise history.