By Mark Wilson 2/9/2014

Maurice Cheeks? Meet Les Moss.

When the Pistons fired their first year head coach just 50 games into his tenure, Moss was the first name I thought of.

In 1979, the Tigers named Moss as manager replacing “The Major” Ralph Houk. From 1974-to-78, Houk skippered Detroit’s baseball ship under GM Jim Campbell. Moss was a logical choice to replace The Major since he had been in the organization managing Triple-A Evansville.

Les was also the “Anti-Houk.”

It’s what the Tigers needed at the time but a funny thing happened on the way to the 80’s.

Sparky Anderson became available.

When Sparky was surprisingly fired by the Cincinnati Reds, who Anderson led to a pair of World Series titles, Campbell noticed.

Secretly, Campbell and Sparky met and it was clear to Campbell that Sparky was the man for the Tigers’ job.

Unfortunately, Moss was already in place.

With a record of 27-and-26, Campbell decided to make the move. On June 14, 1979, Moss was dumped and Sparky came to Detroit.

Les was fired despite being OVER .500 in his first season as manager.

THAT… doesn’t happen often.

Then again, a guy like Anderson doesn’t come along very often and Campbell jumped at the chance to have the architect of the “Big Red Machine” try and turn around the Tigers’ fortunes. At that point, it had been nine years since the magical championship season of 1968.

It worked out great because five years after Sparky arrived; the Tigers won the 1984 World Series.

2014 marks the 30th anniversary of that event.

Moss understood, had no hard feelings and continued his baseball career as a coach for the Cubs, Astros and Giants.

Fast forward to Sunday.

I started getting texts in the late morning from radio networks that wanted me to comment on Mo Cheeks. The news had just broken and I didn’t see it yet. I wondered why in the world anyone wanted a comment on the Pistons’ coach.

After all, the Pistons were on a bit of a mini-roll. They had just won two home games. They took care of the Nets 111-95 and then Denver, 126-109.

The latter came just hours earlier at The Palace.

Brandon Jennings popped for 35 points and Josh Smith added 30. It was good to see a pair of players with 30 or more in the same game. In fact, all five starters were in double figures and it was their 21st win of the season.

So, I checked… and there it was.

“PISTONS FIRE MO CHEEKS”

Nice headline.

Huh? They FIRED Cheeks?

After I thought of Les Moss my second thought was… I guess Tom Gores was SERIOUS.

Just a week ago, Gores made comments to the media about how he didn’t think his Pistons were maxing their potential. He questioned how prepared they were and whether or not they were put in positions to be successful.

That usually doesn’t bode well for the coach.

Gores has owned the Pistons since buying the franchise with his Platinum Equity Company from Karen Davidson in June of 2011.

Numerous Palace employees were canned just as Bill Davidson’s widow was getting the organization in order for a sale.

When Gores took ownership, he kept Joe Dumars on as President of Basketball Operations and GM. It made sense since Gores is a Michigan native and Michigan State University grad and firing Dumars would not have been the most popular thing to do.

Quite the opposite.

I think Gores was looking FORWARD to a relationship with Joe who has been with the Pistons since they drafted him out of McNeese State back in 1985.

Gores was still a college kid up in East Lansing when Joe began his NBA playing career.

Now a Beverly Hills, California resident, Gores returned to his Michigan roots by owning the Pistons. The idea of being Dumars’ boss had to be very appealing.

It didn’t talk long for Gores to make his mark.

Four DAYS after being introduced as the new owner, Gores and Joe D. axed then-coach John Kuester after two awful seasons.

Kuester was seen as a decent choice when he was hired in July of 2009. “Q” had been on the bench as an assistant to Larry Brown when the Pistons won the NBA Championship in 2004. It was like bringing back a piece of the title with “Q’s” return to Auburn Hills.

Two years later he was a pariah and was gone.

Tom and Joe spent the next couple of months conducting a thorough search for the next man to lead the Pistons into the future. They found “their guy” in former Nets head coach, Lawrence Frank.

He was hired in August of 2011.

Frank’s first season, and the first season of Gores ownership, was a disaster. The Pistons finished 25-and-41 in the lockout-shortened NBA campaign. That team simply didn’t have enough talent to compete with the big boys.

Tom and Joe had higher hopes for 2012-13.

Those hopes were dashed right out of the box as Frank’s Pistons began 0-and-8.

Frank became the third coach in league history to have TWO 0-and-8 starts with two different squads. His 2009 New Jersey unit began 0-and-16 before the Nets mercifully ended Frank’s stay.

Gores and Dumars didn’t can L. Frank during that crappy start. They waited until the end when the coach had personal problems at home dealing with the illness of his wife which forced him to miss games.

Officially, Frank went 29-and-53 and got his pink slip.

April 18, 2013 was the day Lawrence found out that he got “Franked.”

It was back to the old drawing board.

For two months, Tom and Joe put their heads together looking for the NEXT great leader of basketball men. Dumars would be hiring his EIGHTH coach since taking the reigns from Rick Sund in 2000.

Brown only lasted two seasons but at least he brought Detroit a title. Flip Saunders was the only one of the bunch that had made it as long as THREE seasons.

A lot of money went to paying off coaches.

Gores and Dumars checked resumes of everyone from Lionel Hollins to Nate McMillan and even solicited the services of Phil Jackson to act as an “advisor” in the search. Jackson began helping his buddy Gores in early May.

Naturally, rumors abounded that Jackson HIMSELF was a candidate to replace Frank.

The Zen Master made it clear from day one he was only in Detroit to HELP Gores who he knew from the Hollywood scene and the work with Platinum Equity.

Phil would NOT be adding “Pistons” to a Hall of Fame coaching dossier that included eleven championship rings with the Bulls and Lakers.

Funny thing. Many Pistons fans that called my radio show really didn’t want Jackson to be coach. They felt he was past his prime and his ties to Pistons’ rivals Los Angeles and Chicago made him unattractive to bring his Zen act to Michigan.

Didn’t WANT Phil Jackson?

Ok, fine.

Who DID Pistons’ fans want?

Bill Laimbeer.

Yes, they thought it was time to lean back into the “Bad Boys” glory days of 1985-to-1991 and grad a name familiar with Piston nirvana.

Isiah Thomas’ name came up as well but most knowledgeable Detroit basketball aficionados realized that bridge had been burned too long ago to rebuild.

For whatever reason… Isiah and Joe were simply not destined to work together like they did in the Pistons’ backcourt for a decade.

Laimbeer? That was a different story.

He had coached the WNBA’s Detroit Shock to a couple of women’s titles and had succumbed to the pressure of needing an NBA assistant gig before he could start entertaining thoughts of being a bonafide NBA head coaching candidate.

Laimbeer went to Minnesota to cut his coaching chops.

I was a proponent of Laimbeer’s hiring. I even had him on the air evading the question while laughing the entire time.

“Do you want this job?” I asked him.

“(Laughing) Well, I would never say no to any opportunity (more laughing)” said Big Bill.

As it turned out, Laimbeer was not given much consideration.

Jackson was kind of a vagabond. He made his recommendations and then just vanished. Gores and Dumars were left to take Phil’s vetting and either use it or toss it in the garbage. This was an important decision for the owner and president and wasn’t taken lightly.

Many thought, if the Pistons blew it this time, it would be the LAST time Dumars would hire anyone.

Gores was being very hands-on.

Then again, so was Davidson.

Just because “Mr. D.” seemed to be reclusive in the off-seasons he was always at games sitting next to Karen in the front row under the basket. He had PLENTY of say who coached his team.

It was Davidson that wanted Rick Carlisle gone even though Rick won 100 games in his two seasons.

Carlisle had a demeanor that rubbed some people the wrong way. He was known to kick Palace executives out of practice and make fun of them. He supposedly berated secretaries and other staffers.

Even before Carlisle, it was Davidson who didn’t like Alvin Gentry’s language during games.

Alvin was given to some spicy, saucy lingo with a lot of profanities laced in for good measure. If you were near the bench, on press row for example, you could hear every “F-bomb” and “S-word” that Gentry would spew.
Bill Davidson HATED it.

“Mr. D” always saw the Pistons as a family experience and a guy talking like a longshoreman when the freighter had to be loaded up, was not his idea of a quality NBA head coach.

Even Brown couldn’t escape Davidson’s wrath.

The man nearly won back to back gold balls in Detroit and Davidson wanted L.B. out so bad he could taste it.

At 73, Larry has survived just fine. His SMU basketball team is having one of its best seasons of college hoops in the last 20 years.

Go back prior to Daly and Davidson always made the moves. He did it with Ray Scott, Herb Brown, Bob Kauffman, Dick Vitale (Oh, did he do it to Vitale!), Richie Adubato and Scotty Robertson. Mr. D got rid of all those cats for various reasons; mostly non-basketball related.

Gores being “hands-on” is nothing new.

As Rob Parker just reminded me, Dumars works for someone. He isn’t the Emperor of Six Championship Drive.

On June 10th, the search process ended.

Maurice Cheeks came out the winner.

Then again, I am using the term “winner” loosely when it comes to that Pistons’ coaching job. If by “winner” I mean the guy who gets the gig and the money associated with it, then… winner is the right word.

You’re fired the day you’re hired— they just don’t put a date on it.

Cheeks had been the head man in Portland and his former Philadelphia team. “Mo” was a star player with the 76ers and aided the championship run in 1983 with Julius Erving and others.

Pistons’ fans were skeptical.

Mo was two games UNDER .500 in his coaching career and only 5-and-11 in the playoffs. Eight seasons leading on the bench and Cheeks had missed the post-season four times and was bounced in the first round three times and was fired after 23 games by the Sixers in his last year of 2009.

Detroit wanted a superstar coach and they got, uh… Frank, Saunders and Kuester.

Hell, toss in many of the guys who have trolled the sidelines since Chuck Daly left in 1992.

Ron Rothstein lasted just one slate and he was gone.

Don Chaney made it two TERRIBLE campaigns.

Doug Collins went two and a half before he was shown the door.

It was 145 games for Gentry.
George Irvine seemed clueless and was bounced following 106 of the most forgetful basketball tilts ever.

Then came the success of Carlisle, Brown and Saunders.

Flip was a decent man who didn’t swear a lot and actually got through those three full slates and set the franchise record with 64 victories in 2005-06. He won THREE division titles in a row and got to the Eastern Conference Finals ALL three seasons.

My goodness, looking back, fans of this team would KILL for Saunders’ run again.

Expectations were a lot higher for Dumars and Davidson then.

Imagine that they FIRED Flip after 59-and-23!

Just GETTING to the conference finals wasn’t good enough.

Yikes!

Michael Curry was brought back after the Saunders departure.

Dumars thought Curry, a star defensive player in Detroit, would be the new voice his group needed.

Curry had never been a head coach before and it showed.
Mike couldn’t get along with guys he played with. Rip Hamilton flat out accused Curry of lying. Rip told me Curry would say something to one player thinking it would never get back to the other player he was gossiping about.

Mark it down. Pistons trivia. Who is the most recent coach to get Detroit to the playoffs?

Yeah, it’s Curry.

A 39-and-43 record was good enough to get the Pistons into post-season play in 2009. Sure, they got swept in four games by LeBron James and the Cavaliers but hell, Mike Curry got them there!

On June 10, Curry was gone too.

One year and out; $5-million to go away.

Cheeks knew the history before taking the position. Mo told me he was cool with it. He was a veteran and knew the business of sports and what it entailed. He wasn’t bothered. His suave “let the heavens fall” manner was kind of refreshing.

To some, Maurice Cheeks seemed like he didn’t care.

It was a little strange.

There were some games early on when Mo looked lost. He would turn to his assistants hoping they had answers. John Loyer had come to Motown with L. Frank and stayed on Cheeks’s employ.

Motown. Come on, it’s a great play on words. If Cheeks was successful it really WOULD BE “Mo-town.”

As this season progressed, Mo got more frustrated after losses. It was obvious he cared but his laid back nature irked some folks. They wanted more fire and brimstone.

What they wanted… was Chuck Daly.

Daddy Rich passed away at age 78 right after Curry’s Pistons lost in four to Cleveland in ’09.

I had a conversation with a caller to my AM 1090 radio show in which he was shocked that the Pistons could never find a dude to come close to Daly and that included Brown’s roll to the title in 2004 and near championship in 2005.

21 years had faded by since Chuck left Detroit and took his thousand dollar Armani suits with him.

Cheeks was the 12th coach in that time frame.

TWELVE!

That’s one every one and a half years; not even a two year average.

Mo never seemed to embrace the city.

He came to do a job and do the job he would do. The other stuff was frivolous to him.

At least that’s the persona he displayed.

Gores made sure Dumars relayed the immediate idea of “winning now.” Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings were paid good money to get results sooner than later. Andre Drummond looked like a budding super stud, Greg Monroe was ready to bust out and Chauncey Billups returned to bring home some ’04 good tidings.

“Going to Work” was back in town.

Blow that whistle! Break out the “Big Hair Ben” Wallace bobbleheads.

Rasheed Wallace was even on Cheeks’ bench as an assistant.

Ten years later, it felt like The Palace was ready to rock and roll.

After a 6-and-10 start, Detroit rolled off four wins in a row. Of course, they still couldn’t beat western clubs on the road. In the last 40 games versus the west away from Auburn Hills, the Pistons had just THREE triumphs and all against Sacramento.

However, the four game streak did include three road wins against eastern teams.

On December 3rd, Cheeks coached the Pistons to a terrific victory at Miami. Dwyane Wade didn’t play but LeBron, Ray Allen and Chris Bosh did. Kyle Singler came off the bench to pop for 18 points and the Heat crowd was stunned.

107-97 Detroit.

Rothstein, who coached the Pistons right after Daly, saw it first hand since he sits next to Miami coach Erik Spoelstra.

In that game, the Pistons went on an 8-0 run thanks in part to Drummond which put them up by 18 with 9:30 left in the first half. Detroit became just the SECOND team to take a lead as large as 18 at any point in a home game for the Heat in the past 83 tries.

Good stuff!

“They made, we missed,” James said to the media afterwards.

The Miami “W” was followed by “W’s” over Milwaukee and Chicago.

On December 7th, the Pistons stood at 10-and-10.

They did lose four of the next five but on December 16th, they went to Indiana. The Pacers were red hot and looked like they would be the team to compete with Miami in the east.

The Pacers were not used to losing games in Indianapolis. On that night they were no match for Smith, Monroe and Jennings. “J-Smoove” scored 30, G-Money had 12 rebounds and BJ added eight assists and Indiana went down at home, 101-96.

“It’s impressive the way we came in and competed with the way the Pacers have been playing,” Cheeks said in the presser afterwards. “We have a good basketball team.”

Yep, Mo said it.

“We have a good basketball team.”

Doom.

Good basketball teams win games and they win them in spurts. After being the first team to beat Indiana on their home court, the losses started to mount.

The Pistons lost six in a row over the holidays; eight of nine overall. The only win was a blowout at Cleveland two days before Christmas, 115-92 in which Smith had 25.

J-Smoove had his ups and downs.

Some games he looked terrible and some games he looked like an All-Star.
Ditto Jennings.

The two dudes brought in to score would be invisible on some nights. Smith makes $14-million a year and Jennings is right at $8-million.

In some games they’re worth $0.

On January 10th, they kicked the streak in the ass.

They won at Philadelphia and came home to beat Phoenix. Smith and Jennings had good games as did Drummond. Rodney Stuckey was providing good minutes off the bench and even Josh Harrellson was shining at times.

First round draft pick Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (KCP) was beginning to find his shooting touch. Early on he was horrendous from the field.

Billups basically returned to tutor KCP.

Will Bynum had a good effort versus the Suns. He tossed in 16 big points as he and Stuckey took some of KCP’s minutes.

Phoenix was 21-and-14 when they flew in so it was a good victory for Cheeks.

Then came Utah.

When the Pistons drafted KCP they passed on Michigan’s Trey Burke. Everyone saw Burke lead the Wolverines to the NCAA Final Four and then the championship game only to fall short to Louisville on that Monday night.

The sentiment was that, short of LeBron being on the draft board, Dumars should take Trey. Even Spartan Nation thought Burke should stay in the mitten.

Nope. It was Pope. Caldwell-Pope out of Georgia.

In a draft night trade, Burke ended up with the Jazz. He missed the first part of the regular season due to injury but was finding his game as he came to The Palace.

Lots of maize and blue in the sparse crowd made it like Crisler Center East.

Burke didn’t disappoint. He played like he had a chip and something to show Dumars.

20 points and 12 assists later, Utah flew back to Salt Lake City with an easy 110-89 victory.

His Jazz teammates knew the significance of his comeback to Michigan and let Burke enter the court at the start by himself.

“It was a little embarrassing,” Burke said in the post-game scrum. “I was mad at the guys but they do that once in a while.”
Oh goodie. Trey and the fellas had some fun while they were routing the Pistons.

Gores had to be seething.

“We took a step back,” Drummond commented.

More seething.

2013-14 was not about “taking steps back.”

The rematch with Utah out west happens on March 24th. Cheeks won’t be there to see it.

A win over Washington was followed by four more losses. One of those was to crappy Milwaukee; Jennings former team. The Bucks were 8-and-33 under first year coach Larry Drew. Still, Caron Butler shot like Michael Jordan. Butler finished with 30 points on the day he had dental root canal surgery.

“I don’t have that much energy. I’m going to go home to go to sleep,” Butler said to the media.

Ugh!

The guy wants to go to sleep and still railed for 30.

Jennings matched it with 30 but the guy he was traded for, Brandon Knight, threw in 16. Khris Middleton was also in that deal and he added 10.
Bucks 104, Pistons 101.

The only thing worse would have been if Bob Lanier had come out of retirement to grab 15 boards. That’s a reference to older Pistons’ fans who recall when Lanier was traded to Milwaukee for Kent Benson in 1980.

Losses to New Orleans and Dallas came after Milwaukee.

At that point, Cheeks had a team 10 games under .500.

Detroit did blow out lousy Orlando and had a game canceled in Atlanta when that city was “pounded” with a 3-inch snowstorm that paralyzed the roadways.

Three inches of snow.

Gores was already in stealth mode.

He had made those comments to the press about wanting to see more effort and the like. Rob and I talked about it in our last podcast. They seemed to be ill-timed but as Rob said, “If asked what do you want him to say?”

Two more losses came in Florida to the Heat and Magic and maybe at that point the owner had seen all he needed to see.

A celebrated tiff with Bynum after a recent game when Will questioned Cheeks authority didn’t help the cause either. Bynum didn’t regret it.
On Friday, the Pistons blew out Brooklyn and then Saturday they did the same to Denver as I mentioned earlier.

By Sunday morning, Mo Cheeks was unemployed.

“This was a difficult decision for the organization to make but we needed to make a change,” Dumars said through a statement.

50 games in?

What else did Cheeks do? Did he swear like Gentry? Berate people like Carlisle? Act like Brown?

In any event, Maurice Cheeks? We barely knew ye.

The 50 game tenure is the fifth shortest in NBA annals for a coach in his first year with a club. Jerry Tarkanian is the gold standard with just 20 games in San Antonio. Bobby Weiss lasted 30 in Seattle, Rudy Tomjanovich 41 with the Lakers and Gar Heard 44 in Washington.

Welcome to the TOP FIVE Mo!

It’s like American Idol for coaching losers.

Gores will now pay out more money for another coach to NOT coach the Pistons.

Loyer has been tagged as interim head coach.
Conflicting reports had the Pistons going after Hollins who got dissed just about nine months ago. Word was he was insulted when the Pistons wanted him to sit on Cheeks’ bench as an assistant. This was a guy who took the Grizzlies to the Western Conference Final JUST LAST YEAR!

Hollins was bagged over “differing opinions with management.”

Oddly, Hollins said no to assisting Cheeks yet the two played together in Philadelphia. Maybe they don’t like each other. You wouldn’t know from Mo since his expression never changes.

Hollins told Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com that, “Of course I am interested.”

He is interested in any job that becomes available.

The question is, does Gores commit to a guy like Hollins now or… does he wait until after the season to see if Dumars is part of the scenario. Common thinking would dictate that if the latter is true, then Dumars would be in danger.

If Loyer is “interim” for only a short time, then Joe D. might be safe if Hollins is his guy. Right now, Loyer is tabbed as interim for the rest of the season but who knows what to believe out of that building anymore.

What about someone else?

There seems to be no basis to resurrect the Laimbeer rumor. Issues abound when it comes to all the former players who’ve worn the uniform.

And, it just seems too early for Rasheed.

32 games remain in this 2013-14 slate.

It begins with San Antonio Monday night and the Pistons are on the edge of the playoffs as I type. Who knows yet how the current guys will respond to this unexpected changing of the guard.

When Sparky replaced Moss, Tiger players were stunned as well.

Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish, Morris all bought in and then Gibson, Petry, Rozema and others came with it later. Anderson demanded respect but he had two World Series rings to flash as collateral.

There is NO Sparky out there in NBA land; save for Phil Jackson.

Unless Phil is going to get another phone call from Gores about resuming his consultant role, Jackson is not a pawn in this charade.

I do wish the best for Cheeks just like I did for Les Moss. It’s just too bad we really never got to know either of them.