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ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy, former coach of the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets, defended recently fired Lawrence Frank when talking about the Detroit Pistons' recent struggles.

(AP File Photo)

Names that have been mentioned as possible candidates to be the new head coach of the Detroit Pistons include Jeff Van Gundy, former coach of the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets.

Based on Van Gundy's comments this week to host Chris Russo on SiriusXM's "Mad Dog Radio" program, that's probably not going to happen.

Without mentioning Joe Dumars by name, Van Gundy blamed Detroit's president of basketball operations – and not Lawrence Frank, who was fired Thursday after two seasons – for the Pistons' failure in the past few years.

Here's what Van Gundy had to say when asked about the recent NBA coaching changes that included Doug Collins resigning in Philadelphia and Byron Scott getting fired in Cleveland.

"Detroit Pistons basketball slogan: When the going gets tough, we fire the coach," Van Gundy said. "It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. You know what surprises me, Chris? These new owners in Detroit have to be exceedingly bright to have made as much money as they have. And to be duped again that your G.M. tells you that the roster is good and the coach is bad ... what was the problem with Michael Curry? What was John Kuester? Now Lawrence. They run through coaches and they haven't even begun to address their problem. They have very little talent and very little basketball character. You combine that, you're going to be in a long rebuild.

"I'm just surprised that when everybody acknowledges it's a player's league – everybody would agree with that – then the most important player or person in any organization is the person that picks the players. But we don't, as organizations, examine them. We just take the easy way out time and time again. You lose, the G.M. convinces the owner 'We got good players. It's the coach's fault.' We fire the coach; we bring a new coach in; we continue to lose. We fire that coach, saying that 'We have better players.' It just goes on and on. It's typical and I can't believe that the Detroit owners fell for it. I just can't believe it."

Van Gundy spent parts of seven seasons with the Knicks as well as four full seasons with the Rockets.

In 748 career games, he had a 430-318 record and was 44-44 in the playoffs, He led the Knicks to the NBA Finals in 1998-99, when they lost a five-game series to the San Antonio Spurs.

Van Gundy currently serves as an NBA analyst for ESPN.

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