Pistons to Meet With Kevin Ollie, Other Coaching Finalists, This Week

The Pistons intend to meet with finalists for their head-coaching vacancy this week, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

As Charania and others have reported previously, the finalists are former UConn coach Kevin Ollie, current Bucks assistant Charles Lee and current Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins.

Pistons owner Tom Gores is expected to attend the meetings, per Charania. They will also presumably include GM Troy Weaver and former coach Dwane Casey, who moved into the front office.

It sounds as if the Pistons hope to make a hire before the NBA Draft Lottery on May 16.

Ollie, 50, recently stepped down as head of coaching and player development in upstart league Overtime Elite. He coached at UConn from 2012-18, taking over for Jim Calhoun and leading the Huskies to the national championship in 2014.

He and the school had a fairly bitter breakup, though, with Ollie filing a grievance after being fired.

Prior to his coaching career, Ollie played in the NBA from 1997-2010 as a guard for 12 different teams. None of those teams were the Pistons.

Collins, 44, spent 10 years in the NBA as a center with the Jazz, Suns, Clippers and Trail Blazers from 2001-11. He was an assistant with Steve Kerr and the Warriors from 2014-21, working under Willie Green with the Pelicans since.

Lee, 38, has been an assistant under Mike Budenholzer since 2014, first with the Hawks and then with the Bucks, starting in 2018. Milwaukee won the championship in 2019.

Lee stepped into the lead assistant role this season, filling the post vacated by Darvin Ham, who left to become head coach of the Lakers before the season.

Sources: The Detroit Pistons, including owner Tom Gores, will hold meetings this week with the finalists for their open head coaching job:

– Former UConn and Overtime Elite coach Kevin Ollie
– Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins
– Bucks associate head coach Charles Lee

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 8, 2023