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Will Pistons finally hold Dumars accountable after Cheeks firing?

Given that the Pistons expected to be one of the most improved teams this season after acquiring Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings in the off-season, the firing of Mo Cheeks shouldn’t come as much of a surprise (though it apparently did catch some Pistons players off guard).

Detroit currently sits ninth in the pitiful Eastern Conference at 21-29, 0.5 games behind eighth-place Charlotte for the final playoff spot and 3.5 games behind sixth-place Chicago for the Conference’s last meaningful playoff spot (Any team between 3rd and 6th has a chance to win a round and to join Indiana and Miami in the East Semis).

Though the team has won back-to-back games (over the Nets and Nuggets) and four of their last six, the Pistons have a 20th-ranked offense, the league’s 19th-ranked defense, and have recent losses to the dreadful Magic, Bucks and Jazz on their record over the last few weeks. In short, while the team has played a bit better over the last week or so, Cheeks’ firing isn’t exactly undeserved, and at 57-years-old, one has to wonder how many more chances as an NBA head coach the former All-Star point guard will get.

But the truth is that the hiring of Cheeks was a mistake to begin with, as was most of what the Pistons did this past summer, and for that reason the organization should have looked above the head coach and to the architect of another failed project – former Pistons bad boy and fan favorite Joe Dumars – if it wanted to hold someone accountable.

Dumars took over as General Manager for the 2000-01 season, and under his watch the franchise made the playoffs eight straight times from 2002-2009, winning a championship in 2004, returning to the Finals in 2005 and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final in a remarkable six straight seasons from 2003-2008.

The one glaring mistake on Dumars' resume to that point was infamously selecting Darko Milicic No. 2 overall in the 2003 Draft, ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. It was they type of move that would usually mean a General Manager's head, but the perennial success kept Dumars afloat.

Dumars’ and the Pistons’ downfall began with a trade of Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson after one week of the 2008-09 season, with the team sitting at 3-0. Detroit went on to a 39-43 record that year, good for eighth in the East and a first round sweep at the hands of the Cavs. Since then, the team has compiled a 132-230 record (.365 winning percentage) and is currently on track to miss the postseason for a fifth straight season.

Cheeks was the eighth head coach Dumars has cycled through in his 13 years at the helm, including five (soon to be six) alone in the last seven seasons, and Dumars has made a mess of cap space in his last two opportunities. In 2009 he gave the duo of Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva a total of $95-plus million over five years. Gordon hasn’t posted an average PER since, is currently playing for the Bobcats after being traded to Charlotte for Corey Maggette in 2012, and Villanueva has never averaged 24- minutes per game with Detroit.

It gets worse – the Gordon/Bobcats deal also included a future first round pick going to Charlotte, which means that unless the Pistons get a top-eight pick this June, their likely late lottery-to-mid-first-round pick in a loaded 2014 draft class is going to the Bobcats. If the Pistons do get a top-eight pick this year, they’ll keep the pick for now, but it’s only No. 1 overall-protected next year and unprotected in 2016 in the unlikely even they land the No. 1 pick next season after getting a top-eight pic k this season. In other words, financial matters aside, the worst part of overpaying Ben Gordon five years ago is only going to be felt over the next year or two.

While Dumars’ embarrassing 2009 summer of mismanagement is hard to ‘top,’ he certainly gave it a solid attempt in 2013, signing the talented yet frustrating Josh Smith to a four-year, $54 million contract to play the wrong position and traded Brandon Knight for Brandon Jennings. Jennings is an upgrade at the point, and the $16,344,497 remaining on his contract for the next two seasons after this one is manageable, but locking yourself into paying over $21 million per year for two shoot-first, low-IQ players who think they’re stars isn’t exactly sound management, especially when you already have a talented frontcourt of Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe that need someone to pass them the ball.

It’s not uncommon for Pistons games to end with just one of Smith or Jennings attempting more shots than Monroe and Drummond combined, and the Smith-Jennings combo averages over 31 shots per game between the two of them despite the fact that neither shoots better than 42 percent. As infuriating as that might be to sit through for the team, coaching staff and front office, anyone who had watched either player at some point in their career could have foreseen this problem.

Monroe will be a restricted free agent come July, and if the Pistons let him walk or make the more prudent decision to acquire assets for him in a trade, the team will still have a budding star in Drummond, Smith moving to his superior position at power forward, Jennings at the point and max cap space this summer. In other words, if they can somehow find a way to separate Smith and Jennings, there is still reason for hope in Detroit.

But that’s assuming that Dumars can be trusted with cap space, and he clearly can’t be.

If owner Tom Gores is truly itching for some measure of immediate success, then the best thing he can do after another Dumars coaching hire has been thrown to the curb is turn his attention to Dumars himself.

He had a good run and helped bring a championship back to Detroit as an executive after doing so as a player, but that shouldn’t give him a lifetime pass to run the organization into the ground with each irresponsible splurge and poor coaching hire.

Names like Lionel Hollins have already been thrown around in the hours following Cheeks’ firing,  John Loyer will take over in the meantime and no one really knows how this latest Pistons coaching search will end. But one thing you can bet on is that the incoming coach should finally be the one to outlast Dumars.

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