Van Gundy focused on winning, not his uncertain future with Pistons
If Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores and coach/team president Stan Van Gundy are headed toward divorce this offseason, it figures to be an amicable separation.
After Friday night's 99-83 win over the Chicago Bulls, both Gores and Van Gundy spoke candidly about the team's direction - and about the conversation the two will have this summer concerning Van Gundy's long-term role in Detroit.
"(The conversation will be) about what happened this year, what we're going to do and our future," said Gores, according to The Athletic's James L. Edwards III. "Stan is a team player, and we're going to discuss it. We're not winning enough, so we have to talk about that."
Van Gundy is under contract through 2018-19, but there's been an obvious lack of progress for a franchise that hasn't experienced high-level success in over a decade.
Despite getting off to a red-hot start this season and making a franchise-altering trade to acquire five-time All-Star Blake Griffin ahead of last month's trade deadline, the Pistons are ninth in the Eastern Conference, with a dispiriting 30-36 record. They're on pace to miss the postseason for the eighth time in nine seasons - and the third time since Van Gundy was brought into the fold in 2014.
"This business is about winning games, and we haven't been doing enough of that," said Van Gundy. "I know how this works. Tom's been fantastic. He couldn't be better as an NBA owner. The way he wants to go about things is perfect. We're in 100 percent agreement on how things should be handled."
Van Gundy is remaining focused on getting his team back to the playoffs, rather than fretting over the possibility that he'll be dismissed before the end of his contract.
"I absolutely have no worries about (my job) whatsoever," Van Gundy added. "What I worry about, and what keeps me up at night, is the fact they we lost 10 of 12 coming into tonight. That bugs the crap out of me. That drives me nuts. What decision Tom's going to make at the end of the year, that doesn't worry me even a little bit."