With Isiah Thomas out - and Rick Carlisle apparently in - at Indiana, Dan Nied writes that the web between the Pistons and the Pacers just got a little more complicated.
In Detroit, we saw this coming last month.
Actually, the entire sporting world saw this coming last month, but in Detroit, it hit us like a heat-seeking missle.
When Larry Bird took over as President of Basketball Operations for the Indiana Pacers seven weeks ago, his eyes diverted from head coach Isiah Thomas and focused squarely on the newly available Rick Carlisle, late of the Detroit Pistons.
Yesterday, Bird fired Thomas and reports say that -- surprise -- Carlisle will be the next head coach of the Pistons' division rival, the Indiana Pacers.
As the Pistons head coach, Carlisle won 100 games in two seasons and lead the team to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Despite that, he was unceremoniously fired after the seaon and replaced with Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown.
Carlisle’s firing was a controversial move in Detroit when it happened, and it will be even more controversial now. In the fans’ eyes, Carlisle, along with team president Joe Dumars who preceeded him by a year, was viewed as a savior for a mediocre franchise. Before he came to Detroit, the Pistons couldn’t find any stability in head coaches, players or management. After Chuck Daly left in the early 1990's the Pistons went though a series of no name coaches: Ron Rothstein, Don Chaney, Alvin Gentry George Irvin. The only mildly successful one was Doug Collins, who boiled over after three years.
Cue Carlisle and the Pistons win two straight Central Division championships and make the Eastern Conference finals last season.
Then he was fired.
The only reason Carlisle was hired in Detroit was because the Pacers front office decided to hire former Pistons star Thomas over Carlisle in 2001. Carlisle was an Indiana assistant for Larry Bird’s three seasons as head coach. It was widely believed that he was being groomed to be Bird’s successor. But when Bird stepped down in 2001, Thomas got the job and Dumars scooped up Carlisle. When things didn’t work out in Detroit, Carlisle was on his way to the broadcasting booth until Bird stepped in at Indiana.
Now he will get his chance to flourish under Bird as Dumars is still calculating the risks of letting Carlisle go and hiring Brown, a fine coach, but may not be the perfect fit Carlisle was.
When Carlisle was let go in Detroit, everyone saw this coming. Perhaps the main reason the Pacers could not get past the Pistons in the Central Division was that Carlisle was such a better coach than Thomas. Carlisle got the most out of basic talent. Thomas basically got the least out of the most talent. When Carlisle became available and Bird took over in Indiana, the writing on the wall couldn't have been larger.
Here was Carlisle, a mix of Larry Bird pedigree, more available than a fat girl on prom night. And here was Isiah, who, back in his playing days, said that if Bird were white, he would just be another good player. Isiah was a thorn in the side of Bird's Celtics. The history of bad blood between the two goes so deep that you have to be surprised this didn't happen the day Bird took over in Indiana.
It may be better this way, at least if you are a Pistons fan. It always felt wrong watching Isiah craft a division rival in his "Bad Boy" image. It was easy to hate the Pacers, until you realized how much you loved those Isiah-led "Bad Boy" championship teams in 1989 and 1990.
Where we had Dennis Rodman, Isiah went out and got Ron Artest. Where we had Bill Laimbeer, Isiah’s Pacers had Jermaine O’Neal. Where we had Isiah, Isiah had Reggie Miller. It was hard to root against him, knowing that rooting for him was the one thing that really got under the skin of basketball fans in the early 1990's.
At the same time, it never really felt right rooting for Carlisle in Detroit. No matter how good a coach he was, we all knew that he belonged to Indiana, that he was screwed over by management and that we got him by default. In reality, we all knew the jobs should have been switched, although that would have made the Pistons much worse off.
Isiah should have been groomed to coach Detroit, much the way Dumars was groomed to run the front office. At the same time, Carlisle should have been introduced as the Pacers’ coach at Bird’s retirement press conference.
But now there is this incredibly complicated web of coaches between the two teams. The Pistons earlier rejected Thomas in favor of Carlisle, and then rejected Carlisle in favor of Brown (Who also coached the Pacers from 1993-1996) ). The Pacers rejected Carlise in favor of Thomas two years ago but then rejected Thomas in favor of Carlisle this week.
But, the scary thing is that while the Pistons might be better under Brown, the Pacers have a good shot at being better than the Pistons under Carlisle.
So, even if the Pistons win 58 games next season, if the Pacers win 59 and go further in the playoffs, that will make dropping Carlisle look like an unmitigated disaster.
Does anyone need a drink?