NBA Coach Hot Seat Watch: Who will be the next coach fired?

NBA Head Coach Hot Seat Watch: No. 3 – Dwane Casey, Detroit Pistons

Three seasons ago the Toronto Raptors decided to pull the plug on the most successful head coach in franchise history, firing Dwane Casey after another disappointing postseason. The Raptors promoted Nick Nurse, traded for Kawhi Leonard and won the first NBA championship in Canadian history.

Casey found himself back on his feet quickly, at the helm of the Detroit Pistons. His first season was solid, as Casey deployed Blake Griffin as a perimeter weapon and led the Pistons to the playoffs. Griffin missed the postseason, however, and Detroit was swept in the first round. Griffin would go on to miss most the next season-and-a-half before the franchise bought him out this spring.

Now Casey is at the helm of a rebuild that isn’t being honest with itself. The Pistons tore down much of the roster this past offseason, accumulating three first-round picks, only to use their cap space on debatably win-now players that almost entirely played in the frontcourt. Their signings weren’t bad, per se, as both Mason Plumlee and Jerami Grant have proved to be worth their contracts. They just didn’t jive well with a roster of young players such as Killian Hayes, Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart.

That puts Casey in a tough position. Should he be judged on the team’s low win total this year, just 16 wins through 55 games, last in the Eastern Conference? Should he be judged on the development of the young players, something which Casey has a strong track record for, when Hayes has played in just 12 games and Stewart is stuffed into a crowded frontcourt?

Casey has not maximized the pieces to any great success, but he has also been given mismatched pieces. He doesn’t deserve to stay on, but it would be difficult to conclude he has done a bad job either. This is a coin flip of sorts. Detroit would likely be best served to keep him on to oversee the growth of the youth movement, if they are comfortable paying for a veteran coach, and if Casey is content at the tiller of a rebuild.