Blaha: "Michael Curry weathers a choppy season with CALM and class"

[Glenn]

Michael Curry weathers a choppy season with calm and class

by George Blaha
April 3, 2009

After more than 30 years of following the Pistons on a daily basis, I’ve come to know that there’s really no such thing as an uneventful season. Even when things appear to be running along without a problem, there are always things going on that need to be managed. But this season has had bigger and more obvious issues to deal with than any we’ve seen around the Pistons for an awfully long while – and that’s given Michael Curry a not very kind introduction to life as an NBA head coach.

I think Michael has remained remarkably steadfast in his beliefs and really calm, cool and collected. He’s very analytical with regard to what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong with his team – and when the game is over, it’s over. He revisits the good, the bad and the ugly and moves on to fix it. Somebody without that even-keeled, rock-solid kind of personality would have been almost unable to navigate the troubled waters that this season has brought.

He’s just had to deal with almost everything you can imagine, including, as it turns out, injuries late in the season. I thought he calmly and coolly went through all of his options and I don’t think you can find too many people who would disagree with the steps he took.

For instance, you had to try to bring Antonio McDyess off the bench, if possible, and with that in mind you had to try to find another starter from three players – Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Kwame Brown – who all brought a little something different to the table. Amir was the logical candidate to get the first crack at it, and when that didn’t work out as well as they had hoped, then the question was do the Pistons play three guards and start Rip Hamilton at small forward.

Michael gave that an honest trial, then decided he had to go back to a more conventional lineup, which meant moving one of his guards to the bench. You had to have a point guard playing – some of the best coaches in our league, from Larry Brown to George Karl, long ago decided that Allen Iverson needs to play next to a true point guard – so that meant Rodney Stuckey was in and either Rip or AI would come off the bench.

It seemed obvious that Rip was better-equipped to come off of the bench – and Rip did a very nice job coming off the bench for the Pistons. But the Pistons didn’t execute that well and, eventually, AI’s bad back and Rip’s return to the starting lineup proved to me that it was best for the team to have Rip as a starter.

I don’t think you could argue with any decision Michael’s made and he’s stayed with experiments long enough to really get a read on them. There are a lot of coaches who have what football people call happy feet – they wouldn’t have stayed with those experiments as long as he did. He wanted a definitive answer and he got them.

It’s impossible to spend any time with Michael Curry and not be impressed with his resolve and his strength and his character. He is going to see this thing through. As a first-year coach, he couldn’t have had any more distractions than he had and certainly he learned some things on the job. Why wouldn’t you? But when the Pistons go to camp next year, there will be a lot more things settled and in place and Michael – and the whole team, really – will be better for the rough seas that they had to get through this year.

If the Pistons make the playoffs – and I have no reason to believe they won’t – every tough decision that needs to be made to make them a contender in each and every round will be made. He hasn’t been afraid to limit Allen Iverson’s minutes, for instance. I think that says it all. If somebody needs to sit down and he’s sure it’s the right thing to do, I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll do it. And I think the best players will be on the floor in order to give the Pistons the best chance to win.

That’s all Michael Curry really cares about, after all – what’s best for the Detroit Pistons. It’s what he cared about when he was a player here and you have to believe it was one of the big reasons that led Joe Dumars to believe he had everything a player needs to make that successful transition to being an NBA head coach.

I mean, I love ya George, but it's not like they're going to fire you if you speak the truth or anything.

[Hermy]

The trouble with Curry is he's run the team like a message board poster. They all want someone to not put up with Sheeds crap and play the hot guy from day to day. Turns out that's crap.

[Tahoe]

ARE YOU DISSIN MESSAGE BOARD POSTERS?

WE KNOW EVERYTHING!

[Glenn]

^Calm down, dude.

You gotta love that Blaha is a homer to the end, through thick and thin.

[Tahoe]

I counted to 10.

Blaha is spot on. My problem is with Herm.

[micknugget]

I never ever thought that I would say this but George Blaha is now dead to me!

[Atticus771]

I never ever thought that I would say this but George Blaha is now dead to me!

Can someone head over to micknugget's house and check on him? Glenn's probably taken him out by now... RIP micknugget.

[Pharaoh]

I don’t think you could argue with any decision Michael’s made and he’s stayed with experiments long enough to really get a read on them. There are a lot of coaches who have what football people call happy feet – they wouldn’t have stayed with those experiments as long as he did. He wanted a definitive answer and he got them.

So it's a good thing Curry takes forever to make up his mind?

Gee, that will help in a playoff series.

The calm look on his face is not because he has it all together (cool, calm and collected) - it's cause he's dumbfounded that his good frined Joey D thought he was capable of doing this job in the first place

[Atticus771]

I think it's clear that this season was destined for mediocrity once the trade went down, but does anyone think another coach could have handled this better? And if so, who, and what do you think the coach would have done?

[Zekyl]

I think the situation with Curry would have gone much better had we kept Billups. Without that trade, Curry would have gotten one slightly underachieving season of experience under his belt and would be able to come back better next year. Once that trade was made, he was doomed. He didn't have the experience necessary to coach a team that didn't self-coach or to handle a prima-donna player like AI. He essentially was going to get on the job experience as a respected guy that could throw out some X's and O's for the team and keep them focused. That's all I thought he was here for when we first brought him in. That's why I liked the move at the time.