Pistons, Cavs Fire Coaches; Collins Quits 76ers

The Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers are looking for new coaches.

Detroit fired Lawrence Frank and Cleveland sacked Byron Scott on Thursday, while Doug Collins downgraded his role at Philadelphia to adviser.

Assuming the Pistons don't bring back one of their previous coaches, this will be their ninth different coach since 1999. Only the Washington Wizards — with 10 — have had more, according to STATS.

Frank was the latest coach to fail to revitalize Detroit, which won the NBA title in 2004 but has since been in sharp decline. He went 54-94 in his two seasons with Detroit.

Frank took over before the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign, but the rebuilding Pistons have been slow to improve despite drafting in the lottery the last three years. This is a big offseason for Detroit, which traded veterans Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince in the last year and has a decent amount of space under the salary cap.

The Pistons slumped after they lost promising rookie Andre Drummond for an extended span because of a back injury. Detroit went 1-13 in March. Frank missed six games that month because his wife fell seriously ill and he returned to New Jersey.

"This has been a very tough season, you know, both professionally and personally," Frank said on Wednesday as Detroit's season came to a close. "Could we have won some more games? Of course. Do we have a long ways to go? Yes."

Scott was fired following a third straight losing season with Cleveland, an 82-game rollercoaster that included injuries, blown leads and a dismal final few weeks.

Scott went 64-166 in his three years with the Cavaliers, who were weakened by injuries this season but also showed little progress under him. Scott was informed he would not be coming back one day after Cleveland closed the frustrating season with its sixth straight loss to finish 24-58 — the NBA's third-worst record.

Scott leaves with one season left on his contract.

Their three seasons under Scott were among the worst in franchise history. He isn't solely to blame, but his young team in 2013 seemed to tune him out down at the end, leaving owner Dan Gilbert no choice but to make a coaching change for the second time in four years.

There wasn't much he could do about his team's inexperience, but Gilbert didn't think Scott did enough to improve the Cavs or earn a fourth season to try and get them turned around. Their defense never improved and the Cavs had a tendency to come out flat in the second half.

Scott expressed his frustration at points during the season, calling his team "soft" but to his credit he never seemed to stop working.

Doug Collins, eyes red and moist, explained at a news conference how he knew in his heart the time was right to retire from coaching.

It wasn't, he insisted, because Philadelphia face a painful rebuilding process. Or even because he felt unwanted by ownership.

The 61-year-old Collins simply missed being a family man.

When the emotional tug of five young grandchildren, and a son about to take over coaching at Northwestern University became too much to consider missing, Collins walked away. He resigned after three seasons as coach of the Sixers and will remain with the franchise as an adviser.

After coaching jobs with three other teams, Collins' days on the bench are over.

"There's a lot of things I want to enjoy," he said. "I think it's every man's dream to be able to live that life that you've worked so hard to try and live. That's what I want to do."

Collins had one year and $4.5 million left on his original four-year deal. Team owner Josh Harris said Collins will now begin a five-year stint as a consultant and expects to have his input on choosing the next coach.

Collins steps down after a season so full of promise unraveled starting with the knee injury to center Andrew Bynum. The Sixers went 34-48 and missed the playoffs for the first time in his three seasons.