Good Luck Cleveland. Now He's Your Problem

Before I begin my rant, I am very thankful for the Pistons winning the championship last year. I also do not think we could have done it without Larry Brown. But here we are, less than a year later and he is half way out the door on his way to Cleveland while the Pistons are still in the playoffs. The guy has always had one eye on the next job and I don't fault him for that. I do fault him for the bad timing because it was obviously a distraction in games 2 and 3. I also question how committed he is to the team right now. It seems like he is more interested in denying what everyone knows to be true. He should just admit that he's leaving and be done with it.

The one puzzling thing that I haven't figured out yet is why the Pistons allowed Cleveland to contact him in the first place. They could have told them to wait until the season was over. Why wouldn't they want to keep him as their coach? I give Joe Dumars the benefit of the doubt and hope he knows what he's doing.

The big question is who will take Larry's place. I hear rumors its Flip Saunders. He's a nice guy but his teams never did anything of significance. In fact they actually underachieved when you look at the talent they had. I also heard that Phil Jackson could be a candidate. First of all, I find it unlikely that he would choose to live in Detroit over LA. But if he did coach the Pistons I would have to pick a new team to cheer for. Phil Jackson is an egotistical jack***. I hated him when he coached the Bulls and still hated him when he coached the Lakers. Why doesn't he go to Atlanta and try to win with that team? Then I'll give him credit for being a good coach. I would like to see them go after Nate McMillan. He seems like a very good coach capable of developing young talent. Maybe he could even turn Darko into a decent role player.

Back to Larry Brown. Just what is Cleveland thinking? He has limited front office experience. He is historically impatient with players. His relationship with Lebron was lukewarm at best in the Olympics last year. He is not the type of person who will be committed to seeing a longterm plan come to fruition. My guess is he goes for the quick fix in Cleveland. They make the playoffs but lose in the early rounds. Then in two years he leaves again to coach somewhere else and Cleveland will be left with a bunch of bad salaries and busted draft picks.

I shouldn't be so bitter. He did take us to the promised land. Who knows after tonight's game with the Heat we may be headed back there. But this time with an uncertain future.