Stan Van Gundy may be going down the route of Doc Rivers and Mike Budenholzer, but he is remaining mum on the rumors for now.
Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News reported on Thursday that Van Gundy, who serves as both head coach and team president of the Detroit Pistons, may lose at least the latter role. Lawrence also mentions Pistons executive and longtime agent Arn Tellem, who is said to be owner Tom Gores’ “right-hand man,” as a possible candidate to take over basketball operations for the team.
On Friday, Van Gundy took an opportunity to respond to the report.
“Nothing has been said, so I won’t even comment on that,” he said to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. “I don’t have any idea. It’s Tom’s team and he’ll make whatever decisions he wants to make and we’ll go from there. Nothing has been broached with me, so I’m not even going to comment on it.”
The 58-year-old Van Gundy has held both roles for the Pistons since he was hired in 2014. The team has gone just 142-165 (.463) with one playoff berth in his four seasons there however. They have not been much of a destination for big-name talent either (though last month’s blockbuster trade for Blake Griffin may have been a step in the right direction).
That said, the Pistons are still trapped on the outside fringe of the Eastern Conference playoff picture despite now having Griffin in tow. With the dual-role head coach increasingly falling out of favor in the NBA, it might not be a bad idea for the team to hand off control of basketball operations to somebody else and let Van Gundy focus on his coaching and his social commentary.
