Can Michael Curry Succeed as Detroit Pistons Head Coach?

Pro athletes have it constantly drilled into their head to always give politically correct answers to questions posed by the media, especially about their superiors such as coaches and general managers.

But when asked about former coach Flip Saunders, the All-Star guard couldn't help himself.

"I was disappointed sometimes with the way Flip did things," said Hamilton in an October 1 article in the Detroit Free Press "That was the most frustrating thing about it. My personal life and everything I did off the court were the greatest things; but more than anything I was frustrated with how Flip ran things."

According to most observers, Hamilton was simply saying what other players on the team already believed. Saunders' jumper-based offense and tendency to switch to zone defenses worked well in the regular season but the playoffs was a whole different ballgame. The Pistons lost their edge and their defensive intensity under Saunders after going to two NBA Finals under previous coach Larry Brown.

Now that Saunders is gone, General Manager Joe Dumars has turned the keys over to Michael Curry, a former Pistons player and assistant coach under Saunders. Curry is good friends with most of the players on the team but is also an intense, focused, no-nonsense kind of guy who has the players' respect.

The one question mark about Curry is his lack of experience. But Curry shrugs off such questions and oftentimes acts as if he is a bit insulted that someone would even ask them.

Helping Curry's cause is the fact that he was head of the NBA Players' Association while he was a player and also his reputation as a defensive stopper who knows the finer points of X's and O's. He was one of the biggest floor leaders and best communicators on the Pistons' 2002 50-win team that made it to the East's second round of the playoffs despite having one of the most offensively-challenged starting 5's (Chucky Atkins, Jerry Stackhouse, Curry, Cliff Robinson, and yes, even Ben Wallace) we've seen in the playoffs.

But their trip to the second round showed just how good they were defensively in 2002. Curry was a big part of that.