As reported by, well, everyone, it looks like Joe Dumars is close to making this official. Take it away, Sherrod Blakely!
Cleveland Cavaliers assistant John Kuester will be named the Detroit Pistons' next head coach, although no formal announcement is expected today.
A league official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the multi-year contract between Kuester and Detroit had yet to be signed, said the 54-year-old met with Dumars for a couple hours on Monday, and the two talked again on Tuesday.
ESPN's Marc Stein is hearing the same things:
Johnson, an ESPN NBA analyst, confirmed in a "SportsCenter" interview Tuesday afternoon that he and the Pistons have broken off contract talks after more than two days of negotiations.
"At our present stage, we just feel it's important that we continue to make decisions that are best for our team," Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said.
[...] Dumars' comfort level with Kuester and his desire to inject Detroit's offense with some new ideas after reaching verbal agreements to sign Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva appear to have trumped his earlier call for more experience. Johnson's defense-first mindset is another factor, sources said, that prompted Dumars to tell the Detroit News on Friday that hiring Johnson was "not a given" in spite of Johnson's presumed status as an overwhelming favorite.
(On a side note, how about that quote from Dumars? At present, he's acting in best interest of the team ... As opposed to before, when he wasn't? I think read too much into these things ...)
Sad to say, it's not all good news, as Y!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reports Antonio McDyess may be close to to deciding on a new team, and Detroit is not among the top three contenders:
The San Antonio Spurs have emerged as the leader in the courtship of free-agent forward Antonio McDyess, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
San Antonio is one of three teams offering the full mid-level exception over two years, sources said. No deal is imminent, but it’s believed McDyess has offers from the Orlando Magic and possibly the Cleveland Cavaliers.
[...] "He’s definitely been wrestling with this [decision]," one league executive said.
Detroit president Joe Dumars still wants to re-sign McDyess, but needs to clear more space to make a competitive offer.
For all the attention the Celtics got for landing Rasheed Wallace, McDyess is the real prize for any team hoping to add a touch of rebounding and scoring while giving max effort on every shift. My Eastern Conference bias hopes he lands with the Magic, but considering he lives in Houston in the offseason, the chance to finish his career in Texas must be appealing.