Detroit Pistons Owner Unhappy With Joe Dumars and Lawrence Frank


Tom Gores, the man who signs the checks in Detroit, told the media that he’s not pleased with the job done by Pistons GM Joe Dumars and head coach Lawrence Frank. Given the enormously unrealistic expectations Gores had coming into this season, his ominous-sounding comments last night are not entirely surprising. Per the Detroit Free Press: “I will say I expected better results,’ Gores said. ‘I met with Joe and Lawrence (Sunday) and I let them know that. They’re great guys that know their business, but I’m here assessing everything. My job is to move this franchise forward.’ The Pistons moved to 29-52 on the season following Monday night’s 109-101 victory. The season concludes Wednesday at Brooklyn and then the season post-mortem will begin. For Gores, it’s all about accountability. He plans to meet with both Frank and Dumars in the coming days. The Pistons are 54-93 under Frank in two seasons. ‘I think both of them, including ownership, has to be accountable for the year,’ Gores said. ‘We have to be accountable for the results of this year. We have a great core of young players, but we have to be accountable.’ Acknowledging the group of young players accumulated — headlined by rookie center Andre Drummond — was a nod to the stewardship of Dumars. He further complimented Dumars and the basketball operations staff. ‘Now I’m very excited about what we have going,’ Gores said. ‘We have a lot of (cap) room. We’ve set ourselves up financially, and basketball operations has set ourselves up, so I’m very excited about the future. But I’m not content about how we performed this year.’ […] Gores added: ‘I tell you, Lawrence is a tremendous guy. I’ve gotten to know him over the last couple and he’s tremendous, but I really have to think about what the best thing is.'”