NBA teams
Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Pistons owner likes turnaround

NBA, Detroit Pistons

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores said Wednesday he was taken a little off guard by his team's surprising turnaround over the past month.

Since waiving forward Josh Smith on Dec. 23, the Pistons have won 12 of 15 games after Wednesday night's 128-118 win over Orlando.

"I'm surprised about that. I am surprised about that," Gores said. "It's one of those things that you can't calculate so I am surprised about that. I'm not shocked, because I know Stan (Van Gundy) is a great coach, but I am a little surprised about that.

"It's a real tribute to our team and their ability to really kind of keep it going. If you look at our 5-23 start, there weren't a lot of games where they just quit. We just couldn't quite finish or (were) just a little bit off. But I feel great about what's happened since."

Gores said he "never" questioned the decision to hire Van Gundy even during the team's rough start. He hired Van Gundy to replace interim head coach John Loyer, who coached the Pistons through the rest of the 2013-14 season after Maurice Cheeks was fired. He also took over personnel control from Joe Dumars, who resigned in April and is the one who signed Smith to the large contract.

The Pistons turned around almost immediately after releasing Smith, winning their next seven games. Since cutting Smith, Detroit improved to 17-26 after Wednesday night's win.

The Pistons waived Smith even though he still has two years and over $26 million on his contract. Gores said there was no concern cutting Smith even with the guaranteed money he would still be owed because of their vision for the future of the franchise.

"Josh is a great talent but we had so many other great talents and depth on the team that we really needed the ball to be in their hands," Gores said. "So as much as a lot of people think that the decision was made overnight, really it was made over a good month and a half and a length of time where we just weren't delivering.

"We weren't getting it done and we weren't winning so it was a process."

Smith had been averaging 13.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists when Detroit chose to waive him. Smith has since signed with the Houston Rockets.

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