J.B. Bickerstaff posted a record of 170-159 over the last four seasons with Cleveland.
After parting ways with Monty Williams after one season as coach, the Detroit Pistons reportedly are hiring J.B. Bickerstaff to fill that role. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Bickerstaff and the Pistons have agreed to a five-year deal to make him the team’s new coach.
J.B. Bickerstaff has agreed on a five-year deal to become the Pistons' coach, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/TYz9VJMwYC
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2024
J.B. Bickerstaff will be the new Pistons head coach, sources tell @YahooSports. It was between Bickerstaff and former Pistons assistant Sean Sweeney, who’s in Dallas.
Woj first on the report
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) June 30, 2024
Bickerstaff replaces Williams, who was dismissed after one season with the franchise. Detroit is coming off a league-worst record (14-68) in 2023-24 and a second straight season with less than 20 wins. Williams had a reported five years and over $65 million left on his contract.
Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon has been busy trying to turn around a three-time NBA-championship winning franchise that has fallen on hard times.
Bickerstaff was fired after Cleveland’s second-round playoff exit this year. The Cavs defeated the Orlando Magic in the first round, notching the franchise’s first series win without LeBron James on its roster since 1993. Bickerstaff went 170-159 in the regular season and 6-11 in the playoffs during his four seasons in Cleveland. He took over when John Beilein, a former Michigan coach, walked away from the Cavs during the 2019-20 season.
Bickerstaff also was promoted to replace fired coaches in Houston and Memphis, going 37-34 with the Rockets in the 2015-16 season and winning 48 games with the Grizzlies during most of the 2017-18 and all of the following season.
The Pistons went into free agency with $50 million in salary cap space, desperately looking for an influx in talent to play with 2021 No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham.
Langdon has begun to reshape the roster by declining a $19 million option for Evan Fournier, extending a qualifying offer to Simone Fontecchio and acquiring Tim Hardaway Jr. from Dallas in a trade. He drafted Ron Holland of the G League Ignite with the fifth pick overall.
The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since 2008, when they appeared in the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth straight year.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
