Breaking: Pistons Fire Head Coach Cheeks

Well, that did not take long.

Sunday afternoon, just a few hours after defeating the Denver Nuggets 126-109, the Detroit Pistons fired head coach Maurice Cheeks. The story was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

 

Cheeks was 21-29 in his first season as the Pistons’ coach. While there have been no reasons given yet of pulling the trigger on Cheeks so quickly, it is clear that his team has not met expectations this season.  After signing Josh Smith and trading for Brandon Jennings in the offseason, fans certainly are not pleased with being a half-game out of a playoff spot.

This is the fifth head coach that general manager Joe Dumars has fired since 2008.

There is no word yet on an interim replacement for Cheeks, but according to Wojnarowski, assistant coach John Loyer is expected to be the frontrunner.

One thing is for sure, the Pistons organization is in turmoil.


Michael Higer is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports.