Pistons jettison Saunders
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - In the morning, the Detroit Pistons fired Flip Saunders. By the afternoon, the players were put on notice.
"I'm not going to sit here and make Flip the scapegoat," president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said yesterday. "Everybody is in play."
Dumars publicly put his entire lineup on the trading block, less than a week after the Celtics defeated the Pistons, who lost in the Eastern Conference finals for the third straight year.
Among those available: Four players who have been together since winning the 2004 NBA title, plus another starter who just finished his fourth season with the team.
"There are no sacred cows here," Dumars said. "You lose that sacred-cow status when you lose three straight years."
Saunders did not respond to messages left on his cellphone. He signed a four-year contract worth up to $26 million three years ago.
The Pistons averaged nearly 59 victories in three regular seasons under Saunders, who trailed only fired Mavericks coach Avery Johnson by two wins and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich by a victory during the span.
Saunders was 30-21 in the playoffs for the Pistons, losing in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals each year. He has coached 24 conference finals games, the most by an NBA coach since 1971 without reaching the NBA Finals, according to STATS.
Saunders extended Detroit's Eastern Conference finals appearance streak to six years, the first franchise to accomplish that feat since the Lakers of the 1980s, with Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown also guiding the Pistons in that time.
Three starters - Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince - played for all three coaches, Rasheed Wallace was acquired in 2004, and Antonio McDyess signed in 2005.
"There are 25, 26 teams that would love to be where we are, but good has not been good enough," Dumars said. "I appreciate everything [the coaches] have done, but I also know they were handed some great teams.
"It's not like they had to take bad teams and make them good. The next coach is going to inherit a good team."
Michael Curry is the leading candidate to be Detroit's next coach. He was on Saunders's staff and is a former Piston.
Other candidates include Johnson and Terry Porter, another assistant last season in Detroit and a former Bucks coach. 