FILE – Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff shouts at his team during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic, May 3, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons have agreed to a four-year NBA contract with coach J.B. Bickerstaff with a team option for a fifth season, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been announced.
The Cleveland Cavaliers fired Bickerstaff in May after they lost to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals despite them winning 99 games over two years.
The Pistons fired coach Monty Williams one season into a six-year, $78.5 million contract after they had the NBA’s worst record for a second straight year. They also fired general manager Troy Weaver after they won 23% of their games in his four seasons.
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Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon has been busy trying to turn around a three-time NBA championship-winning franchise that has fallen on hard times.
The 45-year-old Bickerstaff, who twice finished among the top five in NBA Coach of the Year voting, was 170-159 in four-plus seasons in Cleveland. He had six victories in the playoffs. He took over when John Beilein, a former Michigan coach, walked away from the Cavs during the 2019-20 season.
Bickerstaff also was promoted to replace fired coaches in Houston and Memphis, going 37-34 with the Rockets in the 2015-16 season and winning 48 games with the Grizzlies during most of the 2017-18 and all of the following season.
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Bickerstaff’s father, Bernie, won 419 NBA games with Seattle, Denver, Washington, Charlotte and the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Pistons went into free agency with $50 million in salary cap space, desperately looking for an influx in talent to play with 2021 No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham.
Langdon has begun to reshape the roster by declining a $19 million option for Evan Fournier, extending a qualifying offer to Simone Fontecchio and acquiring Tim Hardaway Jr. from Dallas in a trade. He drafted Ron Holland of the G League Ignite with the fifth pick overall.
The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since 2008, when they appeared in the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth straight year.