J.B Bickerstaff's Plan To Turn Around The Pistons Begins With Banning Hoodies At Practice

Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.

I always thought J.B Bickerstaff got a bit of a raw deal with how things ended with the Cavs. He was 329-170 in 5 seasons as the Cavs head coach, the team usually floated around top 5 in offense/defense/net rating, and they even won 51 games not too long ago. It was under Bickerstaff the Cavs broke their 4 year playoff drought and finally made the postseason without LeBron, but after first and second round losses in back to back seasons, he got fired. I'm not sure how much of that was even his fault given all the injuries he had to deal with, especially last year when his two best players went down. It was also pretty nasty how Shams had the hit piece ready to drop literally 30 seconds after the Celts beat the Cavs in Game 5 to end their season which essentially blamed Bickerstaff for everything. Surely there were no agendas there.

And while I'm sure there are some coaches out there who would take the opportunity to collect coaching checks and relax on a beach somewhere, Bickerstaff jumped right back in and was hired to turn around the Detroit Pistons. Things clearly didn't work out when Monty Williams was hired to turn around the Pistons and was given the largest contract in NBA history, but you can certainly do worse than Bickerstaff. At least he's been around and has some experience rebuilding a franchise/culture.

As we can see, that new culture starts with banning players from wearing hoodies at practice. OK? Seems a little extreme and a little "old man yells at clouds" but who are we to judge? Setting a culture requires sacrifices, and for all we know players weren't paying attention in practice under previous regimes because they were too busy fucking around with their hoodies. Honestly, I can see both sides to this approach.

On the one hand, it's important to be professional. When creating a new culture you have start at ground zero and redo everything. Especially when that former culture is the Pistons who have been a disaster. So while this may seem small and insignificant, I believe it all matters on some level. It sets a tone. Now whether or not the players are receptive to that tone is another story, but it's not as if how they've currently been doing things has been all that successful. Sometimes having a professional take over and change the vibe in the room can be a good thing.

On the other hand, this is definitely a hardo move that can ultimately lead to players tuning you out very quickly. Especially if the results don't start translating onto the court. This is a Pistons team that ranked 27th in offense, 25th in defense, and 29th in net rating last year. My guess is their issues are far deeper than some players wearing their hoodies during practice. What does Bickerstaff have planned to turn around their offense/defense? Maybe that all comes with maturing and being a professional, but in the NBA at the end of the day talent is talent. If this is a team that is still at the bottom of the league in pretty much every category, this hardass approach isn't going to last very long. As with everything, it's much easier to establish buy-in when that buy-in leads to wins.

The thing is, despite their inability to win basketball games, I still think there's legit talent on this Pistons roster. Cade is legit

Advertisement

Jalen Duren is one of the best and most productive young centers in the league

and there's already a little buzz that a guy like Jaden Ivey could end up winning MIP this year. I'm not going to suggest this is a Play In team by any means, but now that the players aren't allowed to wear hoodies at practice, maybe the Pistons could crack 20 wins? They only won 14 last year and went months without a win, so it's not like we're setting the bar all that high here.

Sadly, I think we all know how this ends. The Pistons never make a leap, JB Bickerstaff gets blamed for it and most likely fired with years left on his deal and we start this dance all over again with someone else. The East certainly isn't getting any easier, and I'm not thinking that's because all these other teams banned hoodies at practice, but what do I know.