When the Toronto Raptors fired head coach Dwane Casey, many assumed that he’d land on his feet whenever he wanted to get back into coaching. Whether he wanted a new job right away or wanted to recharge his batteries for a year, Casey was viewed as a hot commodity for teams with coaching vacancies.
High on the list of teams that made sense to hire Casey was the Detroit Pistons, which parted ways with Stan Van Gundy. A report soon after that happened indicated that Casey would be the “primary target” in Detroit’s head coaching search.
Fast forward to Thursday evening and Adrian Wojnarowski brought word that the two parties finally sat down for an interview.
Dwane Casey is meeting with the Detroit Pistons today about the franchise's head coaching job, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 31, 2018
This news comes on the heels of a report that the Pistons would bring in a pair of people with no head coaching experience for interviews: Miami Heat assistant Juwan Howard, and longtime NBA on TNT commenter Kenny Smith.
While it’s possible that either of those candidates would do a good job in Detroit, Casey would theoretically be a far safer hire, someone with a proven track record of success as a head coach in the NBA. The only teams with coaching vacancies right now are the Pistons and the Raptors, so barring something unexpected happening, Detroit can do its due diligence before ultimately hiring Casey if it so chooses.
