Stan Van Gundy "absolutely loved" his four years in Detroit. He just wishes he had led the Pistons to more success -- what they would do for a few 30-win seasons now.
"I still love going up there. Great place to live, can’t beat the summers. Met some great people. And Detroit sports fans are as good as it gets. Really regret that we weren’t able to get it going better than we were and it didn’t work out, because we absolutely loved our time in Detroit, both personally and professionally. Loved the fans there," Van Gundy said on 97.1 The Ticket's Restore the Floor podcast.
Van Gundy's tenure as head coach and president of basketball operations ended after the 2017-18 season. Since then, the Pistons have the most losses in the NBA, 35 more than the next-worst team. Van Gundy didn't exactly leave the cupboards stocked with talent (or draft capital, or cap space). He admits that "our biggest problem from a roster construction standpoint was we didn’t get it done in the draft."
Under Van Gundy and then-GM Jeff Bower, the Pistons infamously selected Stanley Johnson eighth overall in 2015 five picks before Devin Booker, Henry Ellenson 18th overall in 2016 in the range of players like Pascal Siakam and Caris LeVert, and Luke Kennard 12th overall in 2017 one pick before Donovan Mitchell and two picks before Bam Adebayo. And they used their first-round pick in 2018 in the trade for Blake Griffin, whose contract would soon become an albatross.
"I knew what I was coming into," said Van Gundy, noting the Pistons had the most losses in the NBA the five years prior to his arrival. "When you come into a situation like that, you don’t have margin for error. You can’t miss. If you’re good, you can miss on a draft pick here and there, but we couldn’t afford to, we did, and that was petty much the reason (we didn't succeed).
"I think the other thing is a little bit of a lack of patience. I think we had done a good job with our trades, Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris. We had a competitive roster that we just needed to add to and we should’ve just been patient. But those were the two reasons, in my opinion. And with that, we were still pretty competitive. I think we did more positive things than we got credit for. But look, you’re there to win and we didn’t put enough together to get that done. And I’ve gotta take the full responsibility for that."
Those are Van Gundy's front office regrets. One of his only coaching regrets -- "certainly not to the level of what we did in the draft" -- is that he didn't find more playing time for Boban Marjanovic, the 7'4 center who came off the Pistons' bench for two seasons before he was packaged with Harris and Avery Bradley in the Griffin trade.
"I don't know if you could do it now because the game has changed even further, but if I had to go back and do it over, I would have played that guy more minutes. At that time, he was the most efficient offensive player in the NBA. Think about that, with all the great names. Absolutely unstoppable, and he was a great free throw shooter. There was nothing you could do. He was either going to score or get fouled. If you wanted to come double-team him, outstanding passer. And really gave a great effort defensively. Now, he would have struggled on that end, but we could’ve scored every time.
"I should’ve found a way and schemed enough defensively to get that guy more minutes on the floor. Most of my regrets in Detroit are from a player personnel standpoint. I don’t have a lot of coaching regrets — I’m sure some of the fans could give me a list — but that is one of them. I should’ve found a way to get that guy more time on the floor."
In 8.6 minutes per game across two seasons with the Pistons, Marjanovic averaged 5.7 points and 3.5 rebounds. (Or about 24 points and 16 rebounds per 36 minutes.) His Player Efficiency Rating in the 2016-17 season was second to only Russell Westbrook, who won MVP while averaging a triple-double. Rounding out the top 10 in PER that season? Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, James Harden, LeBron James, Isaiah Thomas, Nikola Jokic and Chris Paul. Giannis Antetokounmpo was 11th.
Van Gundy, 64, is on TV these days, doing color commentary for the NBA on TNT and college basketball on CBS. He still has an eye on the Pistons, who just completed the worst season in franchise history, which was preceded by the third worst season in franchise history. They are 74-244 in four seasons under Weaver, which rivals the Process 76ers for the worst four-year stretch in NBA history.
While the Pistons have assembled a decent core of young talent headlined by Cade Cunningham, Van Gundy said "it's clear it’s not the best young core in the league or even one of the top two or three."
"So you’re gonna have to supplement it as you go along," he said. "I think they’ve got other good pieces. (Jalen) Duren is a very good rebounder, (Ausar) Thompson can defend, I personally really like Marcus Sasser, Jaden Ivey I like. But those guys are all either low-level starters, fourth or fifth starters, or rotation pieces. They need two other guys, at least, to put with Cade Cunningham to have a chance to get better.
"And that’s an easy thing from the outside for any of us doing commentary to sit back and say. The hard part is figuring out how to get that done and add two really good pieces around Cade Cunningham. But I think they’re making a mistake if they think any of those other guys are good enough to be second or third players on a contending-type team."
Given this dearth of top-tier talent, there's a notion that the Pistons should trade Cunningham to collect more assets and start over.
"No, I think that’s absurd," said Van Gundy. "I think Cade Cunningham is a really good player. Now, is he a superstar? I don't know. The thing that people want to discount all the time in sports is the role of luck. Cade Cunningham was the No. 1 pick in that draft and he’s going to be a very good player in this league, already is a good player. But he’s not Victor Wembanyama. If you get the No. 1 pick in a different year, it changes the trajectory of your franchise. That’s not anything that you plan for. That’s simply luck and ping pong balls. So all of a sudden, San Antonio has a brighter future than the Detroit Pistons.
"The problem I would think from Detroit’s standpoint is, what are you gonna do with that cap space now? When are you going to try to win? My guess is, Tom Gores wants to get this thing going quickly. They’re not just going to sit around and wait on a young core. And I think that’s the right approach, because Orlando is as young or younger than they are and they’re better than Detroit, San Antonio has a brighter future, Oklahoma City is the youngest team in the league by minutes played and they’re the No. 1 seed in the West."
It's a tough road ahead for the Pistons, who've been going nowhere basically since Gores bought the team. That was in 2011. They have the most losses in the NBA since. Van Gundy, for his part, had nothing but good things to say about Gores, the billionaire who lives in Beverly Hills.
"Look, I’m a big fan of Tom’s," said Van Gundy. "I know the criticism he’s gotten in Detroit, but I think he really wants to win. I certainly think you’ve got plenty of proof of him not being afraid to spend the money. That’s not an issue. Even before me, if you want to go back to some of the moves in the years before I got there, there have just been some bad personnel moves made, and I don’t think that’s on Tom.
"And I don’t really see a big problem with where he lives, I never did. If they were winning, it wouldn’t be a problem. I think he’s shown his commitment, he’s certainly opened up his pocketbook. I think eventually things will turn there."