Hire Joe Dumars!

...or, at least sign him to an extension or something. Firing him would be the worse move in Pistons basketball history.

In February of 2008, I gave a chronology of how Joe created a champion: Making of a Champion

A few other notes I want to include:

• It's not like Joe lucked into having a hard-nosed, hard-working defensive team. He created it. Before Big Ben was ever a starter, and when the Pistons had just lost Grant Hill and were looking to be lottery bound without a doubt, Joe coined "Going to work" as the team slogan saying that you may not see the flashiest team in the NBA, but you'll see a team that works harder than anyone in the NBA, a team that blue-collar Detroit would identify with. He then went about building the team that fit that mold. So, when Pteradactually says "fire joe" and for one of his reasons gives a shift away from the hard nosed defensive style that won them the championship, I can only think that Pistons fans are lucky to have the guy that built a team to that style in the first place.
• The greatness of Joe is not the genius of the moves he makes, but the competency of the moves he doesn't make. You could say he's the opposite extreme of his backcourt counterpart, Isiah. He moves slowly and calculated. Sometimes he takes risks that don't pay off. Sometimes he takes risks that pay off. But he never debilitates the franchise. ESPN ran an article last basketball season that gave the top 20 franchise killing contracts. Unsurprisingly there were no Pistons on that list. That shouldn't be taken for granted. Pistons fans are very fortunate to have a GM that doesn't make big mistakes. I don't like the Ben Gordon signing and Rip's contract will most likely be unmovable and hurt the Pistons chances, but they're not franchise killers. The Pistons will put a semi-competitive team on the court and will be able to make moves. If Joe doesn't like where the franchise is going, Gordon and Rip are still moveable.
• I can remember plenty of times when Joe made a move and the fans questioned him, only to find out he was right. Everyone thought it was a step back when he traded Stackhouse for Hamilton. Going further back, everyone thought it was a mistake to trade JYD for Big Nasty. In the offseason after the championship, many people questioned the decision to let go of Okur and sign McDyess for less, so that he could free up some money to resign Sheed. He may make bad moves here and there but the good in his history far outweighs the bad and, as I said above, the bad are never that bad, and most importantly to this point, Joe has turned out to be right more often than his critics.
• In all of professional sports the coaching and management carousel is spinning at a faster and faster rate. If fans are discontent at all with their team, the immediate reaction is to get rid of the coach, the management, or both. It makes sense as demanding a change is the only thing a fan can really do, but how often is this beneficial? So, you don't like the Ben Gordon signing and you want to get rid of Joe D as a result, but who are you going to hire in his place? Sure Pritchard and Daryl Morey (whoever that is) have looked better recently but neither has enough of a history to show that they may go through their downtimes as well. Everyone's favorite GM before Joe D was Jerry West, but look at what he did in Memphis. Even if the Pistons wanted a Pritchard or Morey type, what makes you think that the Pistons are an enticing destination for those GMs. I think that the Pistons fans get to feeling a bit entitled at times due to having three championships in the last 20 years, but let's not forget that it was Joe D that brought all three of those titles to Detroit, twice as a player and once as a GM. Without those titles they are no different than, say, the 76ers and no more of a draw for top talent.

I question the moves Joe made this offseason. I will be critical of those moves every step of the way, especially when the Pistons go out in the 1st round of the playoffs this year. But calling for a managerial change is crazy talk.