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Tayshaun Prince is the face of the veteran leadership for the Detroit Pistons. He is one of the few veterans that were kept around after the players revolted against head coach at the time, John Kuester. While the organization rid itself of the majority of the mutinous leadership, Prince was kept on at the urging of newly hired head coach, Lawrence Frank. Now Frank may be regretting this decision.
Late last week Prince questioned his coach’s substitution choices following a loss to the Orlando Magic, and while all people are entitled to their opinions, Prince chose to share his with the media.
“[Substituting] isn’t my decision but we need to figure out some things to do when teams are making runs to get us a good opportunity at the rim or the foul line.”
Prince felt that Frank made a poor choice in substituting all five players on the floor and putting the second unit out on the floor in the midst of a Magic run.
“If I was Coach, I would’ve made a decision sooner than he did,” Prince said. “A 6-0 run, call a timeout. Bam-bam, we come back out, nothing happens, bam (make a substitution). If you gotta make a choice, you have to make a choice. (He) went too long.”
Unfortunately for Frank, Prince is not the only player voicing his frustration to the media; Will Bynum chose to add his voice to the mix as well, telling the Detroit News that the rotations are unlike anything he has experienced before.
“I’m having to adjust to everybody. I’m playing with so many different people. First I go from not playing with [Rodney] Stuckey to playing with Stuckey every day.” the frustrated point guard complained, “I go from playing with Kyle [Singler] all the time to never playing with Kyle. I’m playing with Tayshaun [Prince]. Early on I was playing with Brandon [Knight] and I never played with him in two years since I’ve been here. It’s all over the place right now.”
So far, the Pistons have been sticking by their coach, but one has to wonder how long before Lawrence Frank is officially on the hot-seat. If he can get his locker room back under control, then he may have a chance to retain his position, but in order to do that, the Pistons need to start winning. That could be hard to do if the players refuse to put forth the effort necessary on the court.
It is unfortunate that the organization could be facing such an embarrassing issue just two years removed from the last incident. Having the players openly question their head coaches decisions is never a good sign of things to come, and it would not be a surprise if Frank is eventually forced out.
If the worst scenario were to play out, Joe Dumars and the rest of the Pistons front office are going to have to finish what they started two years ago. This time they need to pull all of the weeds and not let one rebellious player keep a spot on a Detroit roster, not even as an equipment manager.
Jeff Everette is a Featured Columnist for www.RantSports.com, covering the NFL and NBA. Follow Jeff on twitter @jeverettesports, like his page on FaceBook, or add his Google + to your circles for all of his latest articles, thoughts, and rants.
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