Detroit Pistons Adding Former Houston Rockets Head Coach to Staff

The Detroit Pistons clearly aren't afraid of spending on their coaching staff. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday that former Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas is joining the Pistons as a top assistant coach.

Former Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas has agreed to join the Detroit Pistons and new coach Monty Williams as the top assistant coach, sources tell ESPN. Silas had previously been a top assistant with the Mavericks, Hornets and Warriors.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 5, 2023

The Pistons signed former Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams to a record-breaking contract last week, so they're clearly making a concerted effort to invest in coaching after finishing with fewer than 25 wins in each of the past four seasons.

Silas coached the Rockets through three similarly ineffectual seasons before being let go earlier this year. He amassed a cringe-inducing 59-177 record from 2020 to 2023, but he still retains plenty of credibility in NBA circles thanks to respectable runs as an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks, Charlotte Hornets/Bobcats, Golden State Warriors, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Four years of tanking haven't landed the Pistons much (Cade Cunningham notwithstanding), and they'll never be a free-agent destination, so assembling a star-studded coaching staff is one of the few avenues available to improving their team.

It speaks well to ownership's desire to return the franchise to respectability that they're willing to invest to this degree, but it'll take more than big names on the bench to elevate the Pistons back to their former glory. Neither Williams nor Silas has a championship pedigree, and they never will unless they can develop the Pistons' young pieces into stars. It remains to be seen if they have it in them.