I hear what you are saying. He would get more respect than Curry, no doubt……but the bar wasn’t exactly set very high by the last guy, ya know? I can remember Rip ripping into (no pun intended) Curry in a huddle at the beginning of last season….I’m talkin like November, maybe early December. For him to be that unrespected by his players that quickly, that’s pretty bad. Laimbeer would be an upgrade over Curry now….and he would have been a better choice to take over last year as well. However, I think it’s time to stop setting the sights so low. Who were the coaches that Detroit achieved its biggest successes under recently? Saunders and Brown…both experienced, ‘name" guys. Personally, I do not like Brown’s personality and ego, but you cannot deny the results he has repeatedly produced. In any event, I think it will take some real balls on Dumars’ part to hire another rookie coach. Dumar’s job sounds like it is in no way in jeopardy, but you can only make so many mistakes on coaches before other heads start to roll…. If you’re looking for a holdover from the Bad Boys Championship days to lead the team, I think they Isiah Thomas is looking for a coaching job…..?

That is an interesting conspirary you pose about Dumars letting Laimbeer know what was up…… I think it is probably more likely that Laimbeer thought he was being ‘type-cast’ as a women’s coach and did not want to ruin his chance to break into the NBA coaching game. From what I understand, he has been wanting to coach in the NBA for years and no one has shown any real interest. It’ll be interesting to see if that changes now.