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How Stan Van Gundy changes things for the Pistons

Jim O'Connor / US PRESSWIRE

All it took was one hire, but for the first time in a long time, the Detroit Pistons seem to have some direction again with news that Stan Van Gundy will take over as head coach and president of basketball operations.

Under Joe Dumars' watch, the Pistons had been as bad as any team over the last half decade. The team has run off six straight losing seasons, has missed the playoffs in five straight seasons and hasn't won more than 30 games in a season since 2008-09. In a league where more than half the teams make the postseason every year, and in a laughable Eastern Conference especially, that's utterly embarrassing. You almost have to try to be that bad for so long.

The thing is, for as bad as Detroit has been over the last few years, with a potential franchise centerpiece in Andre Drummond, a ton of cap flexibility going forward and that aforementioned weak East, there's been a sense that the team isn't actually that far off from climbing the ranks again with the right guy in charge.

Van Gundy the president may be unproven, but as a coach, he's most certainly that guy.

Sometimes an out of work coach or executive can see their legend and demand grow - unwarranted - just by virtue of not being around for a while. That's not the case with Van Gundy, who has been one of the best, if not the best available coach since his time with the Magic came to an end.

I mentioned last week that there are only a select few head coaches who can consistently make a positive impact on a team's performance and a few too many who can have an adverse affect, but that for the most part, most NBA coaches are somewhere in the middle, mostly dependent on the talent at hand. Well Van Gundy is one of those few at the top, and his track record proves it.

In fact, of the 76 coaches who have coached at least 500 regular season NBA games, Van Gundy ranks sixth with a .641 winning percentage. The five guys ahead of him on that list are all either employed (Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich), over 70 (Billy Cunningham, K.C. Jones), or dead (Red Auerbach). That tells you something.

The 54-year-old Van Gundy will be well compensated - $35 million over five years - but more importantly, will have final say on all player personnel decisions. That might be a bit concerning to some who are weary about SVG's lack of management experience, but the positive for the Pistons is that a perennially winning coach who knows how to get it done is going to be shaping his own roster. A coach or president's salary doesn't affect your team's financial flexibility, so if Tom Gores is willing to pay Stan Van Gundy a large sum of money to get him to Detroit, all the power to him. And Pistons fans should feel the same way.

Based on how Van Gundy values the three-point shot - as if it's worth an extra point or something - the Pistons will likely be on the search for perimeter shooting immediately. In his seven full seasons at the helm (he coached only 21 games before being fired by the Heat in 2005-06), Van Gundy's teams have finished first in three-point attempts three times, second in attempts twice, seventh once and 16th once.

But the Pistons finished 29th in three-point percentage this season at 32.1 percent, and the only players who were above average from beyond the arc in 2013-14 were Kyle Singler, Jonas Jerebko and Josh Harrellson. Singler's the only one of those three who figures to have much of a future in Detroit, although perhaps Jerebko will be of more value in a Van Gundy system.

Beyond that, Van Gundy and co. could use Greg Monroe, who is a restricted free agent this summer and looks to be on his way out of town, to nab some shooting in a sign-and-trade deal, and Brandon Jennings can be a capable outside shooter. Monroe is a young offensive force who can both finish and pass, but he's a defensive liability and you can't be paying one-dimensional big men the max, or anything close to it, as he and his agent will be looking for.

If the Pistons can turn Monroe into shooting and additional assets, if Jennings can give them some outside shooting and can be more responsible defensively, if Josh Smith - as close to untradeable as players get - can make a smooth transition back to his more natural power forward spot, and if Van Gundy can make Drummond the focal point as expected, with three-point bombers around him, then Detroit has the foundation of a playoff team in the East. With a team seemingly on the rise and a boat load of cap space ahead, Van Gundy and the Pistons might then be well on their way.

Of course, that's a lot easier than done with a team that hasn't finished higher than 19th in offensive or defensive efficiency since 2011. And making Drummond the focal point may be tough to accomplish with Jennings and Smith around - those two combined to chuck over 30 shots per game this season while Drummond attempted less than 10, and they both had usage rates above 23 percent while Drummond's lagged below 17 percent.

But while all of that may seem like wishful thinking to some, today Pistons fans have reason for hope and reason to believe that anything is possible from here on out. Making not just a fresh hire, but the right hire, can do that for a franchise. The division-rival Cavaliers should take note.

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