J.B. Bickerstaff set to join Detroit Pistons as head coach: Reports

According to reports, Detroit Pistons and coach J.B. Bickerstaff have agreed to a four-year contract with a team option for a fifth season. After falling to Boston in the Eastern Conference playoffs after winning 99 games in the previous two years, the Cleveland Cavaliers fired Bickerstaff in May. 

After Detroit Pistons finished with the poorest record in the NBA for the second consecutive year, they fired coach Monty Williams one season into a six-year, $78.5 million contract. In addition, general manager Troy Weaver was fired after four seasons of leading the team to a 23% winning rate. The president of basketball operations of the Pistons, Trajan Langdon, has been putting in a lot of effort to turn around a struggling team that has finished third in the NBA three times. 

The 45-year-old J.B.Bickerstaff, who twice placed in the top five in NBA Coach of the Year voting, went 170-159 in four seasons with Cleveland. He has six playoff triumphs. He takes over for John Beilein, a former Michigan coach, who left the Cavs during the 2019-20 season.

Langdon has begun overhauling the team

J.B.Bickerstaff was also elevated to replace fired coaches in Houston and Memphis, where he went 37-34 with the Rockets in 2015-16 and won 48 games with the Grizzlies in 2017-18 and the next season. The Pistons entered free agency with $50 million in salary cap space, hoping for an injection of talent to play with 2021 No. 1 overall selection Cade Cunningham. 

Trajan Langdon has begun overhauling the team, declining Evan Fournier's $19 million option, extending a qualifying offer to Simone Fontecchio, and trading for Tim Hardaway Jr. from Dallas. He selected Ron Holland of the G League Ignite as the fifth overall choice. Since 2008, when they made their sixth consecutive appearance in the Eastern Conference finals, the Pistons have not won a postseason game.