Scott Roth joins Pistons coaching staff as assistant

The Detroit Pistons are set to hire Scott Roth as an assistant coach for the remainder of the season, according to interim head coach John Loyer. Roth is already with the team and was working with Luigi Datome and Tony Mitchell at Pistons practice Monday.

The Pistons sidelines were getting to be a pretty lonely place following the firing of Maurice Cheeks. The staff was down to three guys once Loyer was promoted, with Henry Bibby the only remaining assistant and Rasheed Wallace promoted from player development coach to assistant. When Cheeks was fired the one guy he brought with him from Oklahoma City, Maz Trakh, was also let go.

I don't know anything about Scott Roth, but he most recently spent four seasons with the Toronto Raptors from 2010-13. I'll just pull the Raptors' official press release when they announced his hiring.

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday the addition of Scott Roth as an assistant coach. Roth brings 25 years of experience as a player, scout and coach in the professional and international ranks to head coach Jay Triano's staff.

"Scott and I have a long history dating back to playing professionally at the same time in Turkey," said Triano. "He is a coach who brings to us experience from many different levels of basketball - International, D-League and the NBA."

Roth comes to Toronto following one season as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors. Prior to that he was the head coach of the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League in 2008-09 and guided the team to its first post-season appearance with a 26-24 record.

Roth has served seven seasons in the NBA as an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks (1996-2000) and Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies (2000-02), and four seasons as a scout and advisor for the Milwaukee Bucks.

In 2000, Roth was the head coach of the Turkish National Team when they claimed a silver medal at the European Championships held in Istanbul. A year later he guided Turkey at the 2001 World Championships in Indianapolis. Most recently, he was the head coach of the Dominican Republic National Team in 2007 and 2008, earning a silver medal at the CBC Caribbean Championships in Puerto Rico.

Following a standout collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin, Roth was selected in the fourth round of the 1985 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs. He opted to begin his professional playing career overseas with Efes Pilsen in Turkey. He returned to North America in 1987 and appeared in 160 NBA games with the Utah Jazz (1987-88), San Antonio Spurs (1988-89) and Minnesota Timberwolves (1989-90) before returning to Europe to finish his career.

Roth was one of several assistants, scouts and executives not retained by Raptors GM Masai Ujiri when he took the reins of the franchise.