Pistons fire coach Maurice Cheeks

[pwaldo]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10...ons-head-coach

The Detroit Pistons have fired Maurice Cheeks just 50 games into his tenure as the team's head coach.

The Pistons announced their decision Sunday in a statement released by the team.

"This was a difficult decision for the organization to make but we needed to make a change," Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said. "We have great respect for Maurice and appreciate his hard work."

Sources briefed on Detroit's thinking said Sunday that assistant coach John Loyer will be formally named interim coach before Detroit's home game Monday with San Antonio. But NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins has emerged as one of the primary contenders for the job, having interviewed with the Pistons last summer when Detroit unsuccessfully tried to convince Hollins to join Cheeks' staff as an assistant.

Yet sources added Sunday that Pistons owner Tom Gores could elect to wait until the offseason before bringing in a full-time replacement for Cheeks, with the Pistons facing a number of difficult decisions in coming months and still very much alive in the race for a playoff berth this season thanks to the forgiving Eastern Conference.

Dumars, who has now dismissed eight coaches since taking charge of Detroit's front office in 2000, is in the final year of his contract. The fact that Cheeks was ousted in-season instead of Dumars could thus be seen as a sign of support for Dumars, who was part of two championship teams in Detroit as a player and another as its top executive.

[bdoody42]

I not sure Cheeks needed to be fired, but I sure feel like Dumars has made a his fair share of free agent mistakes. Charlie V, Gordon and Smith.