Cowens has always annoyed me. Can't tell you why.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060912/SPORTS0102/609120375/1127


Cowens likely to join staff of Pistons

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS -- The Pistons are close to adding a Hall of Famer to their staff.

Dave Cowens, a Hall of Fame player for the Celtics and former coach of the Celtics, Charlotte Hornets and Golden State Warriors, is expected to join Flip Saunders' coaching staff.

"Nothing is done until it's done," Saunders said. "But we came to the decision that we were going to make our staff as good as we could make it. We weren't going to set any limits. I am real excited about bringing Dave in."

Cowens, who spent last season coaching the Chicago Sky of the WNBA, will be the second former head coach on Saunders' staff. Last month, the Pistons hired former Bucks coach Terry Porter as an assistant.

"The people who worry about that are those that question their own ability," Saunders said, when asked if it bothered him to have two former head coaches on his staff. "If you worry about that, you aren't secure in what you are doing. I have always been one to want to be surrounded by the best people. It's how you make your team stronger."

Cowens and Porter will replace Sidney Lowe and, most likely, Don Zierden from last year's staff.

Lowe left to become coach at North Carolina State. Zierden, whose family remains in Minnesota, is a candidate for the head-coaching job with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx.

What's not to like?

He'll take the check.
http://www.wnba.com/media/chicago/cowens_index_300.jpg

Hail you a cab.
http://www.wnba.com/media/sky/Cowens,C2.jpg

Is kind to old people,
http://www.joesinnott.com/images/200_jscowens.jpg

and children alike.
http://www.dcowens.com/images/img_programs_001.JPG

That's a fine tribute, you've changed my mind.

Welcome Dave.

We welcome him and hopefully Nazr will too. I'm sure he can do more than coach bigs though.

Suit him up.

Actually, on the cab subject, didn't he once walk out on the Celtics as a player to drive a cab in Boston?

i dont like him or porter. but at this point i dont care. go pistons and die flip.

I'm wondering how the loss of Don Zierden hits Flip. I wonder if we've entered "too many chiefs, no indians" territory.

according to Charlie Rosen Dave Cowens was the dirtiest player in the NBA history :O

But the dirtiest player in NBA history was Dave Cowens. Yes, he was skilled. Yes, he was tough. Yet his all-out aggressiveness was frequently mindless and downright sadistic. (In a bar-fight while he was in college, Cowens once bit off a large piece of an antagonist's nose.) Cowens, more than any of his predecessors, was considered by his contemporaries to be the one player whose over-the-top brutality was most likely to send an opponent to the hospital.
OUCH!
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5860712

well lets hope he's a tough coach too

LOL. Those with big nose or ears alike, watch out.

cowens and porter may not get or deserve the head coaching job if saunders eventually gets fired; but they both certainly are getting an extended audition. :)

Funny how threads turn into "fire Flip" threads, even if the mentionings of firing him are veiled.

I know many of you guys want him gone with a passion, while others are acknowledging that he simply won't be here forever, but I really hope Flip is here for about three more years. We need to develop a reputation of keeping coaches around for more than two years. Otherwise, who in their right mind is going to come here as a replacement?

hopefully someone better than flip.

i'm not worried. coaching in the nba is probably the easiest of all major pro sports. it's really a matter of motivating players and managing playing time/substitution patterns than Xs and Os. coaches have the least impact in the nba game over all the other sports IMO.

honestly, there are a dozen guys who could coach our team with the same success, or more.

Coaches get fired like rain drops from the sky. As long as the team is good, no coach is turning down the Pistons. Each time the Pistons have fired a coach since Carlisle they got the best guy out there (Phillup not with standing since that dude hates Detroit with a passion). I don't care about how often they fire the clip board holder, I care about who is available when they do it.

But was Flip a better option than Nate McMillan?

I'm not saying Flipper shouldn't have been hired (it's an offensive minded league and he's an offensive-minded coach) but is he a better motivator or manager than Nate?

better for the price. but even i wont begrudge penny pincher on that one, portland threw a ton of cash at a coach who hasnt accomplished much at all.

um... we may all hate to realize it... but our team is getting "old". There's a fine line out there where a team goes from being an "experienced team" to just an old one. i saw a stat during the playoffs last year that said that the Piston's starting 5 had started the most playoff games together as a unit. I don't quite remember the exact number but it was alot of games (considering you only need to win 16). So my point is... as we get younger talent... we're going to have to rely more on solid coaching. (like a Dunleavy, M. Brown, possibly that short punk from NJ)

Now we haven't been in the lottery in quite awhile... (thank goodness) but with the younger talent that we do have... we haven't been utilizing it and it's unforseen how well we've been utilizing it? Flip Murray is a short term band-aid fix... Evans, Delfino, Arroyo, and yes even Darko... fellas, the young talent needs to step up... unless we really want to take a trip to the lottery line... which frankly, I don't want to sit through a season of that and then be talking 2 years out about how we're one player short of winning a championship. I hope ya'll feels me on this one. peace out.

um... we may all hate to realize it... but our team is getting "old". There's a fine line out there where a team goes from being an "experienced team" to just an old one. i saw a stat during the playoffs last year that said that the Piston's starting 5 had started the most playoff games together as a unit. I don't quite remember the exact number but it was alot of games (considering you only need to win 16). So my point is... as we get younger talent... we're going to have to rely more on solid coaching. (like a Dunleavy, M. Brown, possibly that short punk from NJ)

Now we haven't been in the lottery in quite awhile... (thank goodness) but with the younger talent that we do have... we haven't been utilizing it and it's unforseen how well we've been utilizing it? Flip Murray is a short term band-aid fix... Evans, Delfino, Arroyo, and yes even Darko... fellas, the young talent needs to step up... unless we really want to take a trip to the lottery line... which frankly, I don't want to sit through a season of that and then be talking 2 years out about how we're one player short of winning a championship. I hope ya'll feels me on this one. peace out.

dont worry. i hear ben wallace has been working with darko in practice.

everythings going to be juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine.

Flip sucks. Cowen Rules.

BYAAAAAH!

But was Flip a better option than Nate McMillan?

I'm not saying Flipper shouldn't have been hired (it's an offensive minded league and he's an offensive-minded coach) but is he a better motivator or manager than Nate?

McMillan took the job with Portland prior to the resolution of the LB/Pistons saga. It's debatable if he even would have wanted the Pistons' job; he might have wanted to remain in the Pacific northwest. But I do agree, McMillan would have been a better hire than Flip.

^Agreed. I recall the closeness of Portland to Seatle being a factor in his move.

We're not an old team.

Billups, Rip and Prince are now in their prime. They have another 3 years before they decline IMO. None of them rely on athleticism to survive, which should prolong their careers.

Sheed, Dice, Davis and Hunter are old. At present we have no one to replce them, unless Maxiell is gonna be a beast (he could be)

I'm not sold on Amir Johnson or Will Blalock or Carlos Delfino being here for the long-term, which means that Orlando pick might be vital. If they make the playoffs we get a decent pick.

If they miss the playoffs (but aren't in the top 5) we could get a quality big to give us some athleticism up front.

Maybe that's why I'm praying so much the Magic pick is Lotto...

i agree that Chauncey and Rip are in their primes right now and have some very effective years still.

Tayshaun is still pretty young and i'm really interested to see if he can improve his game some. not his actual game (although i'd like to see him get to the rim a little quicker), but his aggressiveness. he seems content taking a backseat as the 3rd or even 4th scorer sometimes. he's got enough talent to take over games for stretches, especially with his post up game.