Pistons’ Dwane Casey Steps Down As Head Coach, to Join Front Office

The veteran coach will stay in Detroit with a new role.

Pistons coach Dwane Casey announced Sunday he will step down from the position after four seasons to transition into a role in the team’s front office.

“This is my last game,” Casey told reporters following the Pistons’s 103–81 loss to the Bulls in the final game of the season, via NBA insider Marc Stein. The last-place Pistons finished the 2022–23 campaign with the top odds for the No. 1 pick, and widely-presumed favorite Victor Wembanyama, in the 2023 NBA draft after finishing with the NBA’s worst record at 17–64.

• Get your seats to NBA games with SI Tickets

With Casey moving on to a new role, Detroit will now embark on a head coaching search in the coming months. Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee and former Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who was suspended for a year prior to the season, are currently expected to be among the candidates for the job, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Sunday’s loss capped another challenging season for the rebuilding Pistons under Casey, who arrived in Detroit in 2018 after seven years with the Raptors. With another offseason of change on the horizon, the team’s new leader stands to inherit a young core that includes ’22 fifth overall pick Jaden Ivey, ’21 first overall pick Cade Cunningham–set to return after an injury-shortened Year 2–and a likely top-three pick in this year’s draft. 

In his four seasons at the helm, Casey, the ’18 NBA Coach of the Year in Toronto, guided the Pistons to a combined 104–198 record with one playoff appearance. Detroit’s lone postseason trip came after the team finished the ’18–19 campaign with a 41–41 record, the best season of Casey’s tenure, and ended in a first-round sweep against the Bucks.