1. USA Todays Sam Amick reports that Tom Gores will chase Michigan State coach Tom Izzo this summer to fill the Pistons head-coaching void. What positives could Izzo bring to Detroit?
Dan Feldman: Izzo has successfully designed and implemented extremely effective offensive and defensive systems at Michigan State. Even if those schemes wont translate directly to the NBA, I have a reasonably high amount of faith in Izzos basketball acuity. His challenge with the Pistons would be different, but hes shown he can achieve positive results when faced with similar challenges. Theres nobody in the world who has done precisely what the next Pistons coach must do, but Izzo has succeeded in a similar area.
Patrick Hayes: First and foremost, his offensive and defensive systems will work in the NBA. Particularly if you look at what MSU is running on offense this year, making great use of stretch bigs Adreian Payne and Kenny Kaminski, variations of that offense are clearly similar to what NBA teams run. Hes also adaptable to sometimes strange-fitting personnel. For example, hes had successful teams that feature solid pass-first point guards (think Mateen Cleaves era), teams that make it work with shoot-first point guards (think Kalin Lucas or Keith Appling era) and teams that basically run their offense through a forward (think Draymond Green era). There are some successful college coaches that run systems that you can see would have no chance at working at the NBA level (Rick Pitino wanting to run a full-court press for an entire game, for example), but Izzo is one of the handful of college coaches out there whose system wouldnt be a big question if he landed with a team with decent personnel.
Brady Fredericksen: Hed bring accountability. The Pistons havent had a coach that commands respect and has any clue what the heck is going on since Larry Brown. The Pistons are a rudderless ship as a whole, but if they can find a coach who has a clue and vision and knows how to get the wheels rolling in the right direction,thats all a rebuilding team needs. The best thing thatd come with Izzo coaching the Pistons is that every Josh Smith 3-pointer would lead to a benching. Every. Single. One.
