Could Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups Return to Pistons?

The NBA regular season is drawing to a close and the coaching carousel will soon begin to move.

Teams in the lottery, like the Portland Trail Blazers, will evaluate their coaching staffs and whether they should return or not.

While it appears that the Blazers support Chauncey Billups after two seasons of missing the playoffs, his job is not 100 percent secure.

Neither is Dwane Casey’s job with the Detroit Pistons after four consecutive losing seasons on the bench.

Yahoo Sports! insider Jake Fischer noted in his latest article that Billups was a candidate for the Pistons before hiring Casey, leaving a possibility for the avenue to be re-explored.

If Casey were to vacate Detroit’s coaching staff, Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee, considered one of the premier assistants in the league, has been mentioned as a top potential candidate for the Pistons’ head coaching position. Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, who has secured several head coaching interviews in the past, is another name to keep an eye on, sources told Yahoo Sports. Griffin was previously a Thunder assistant when Detroit general manager Troy Weaver was in Oklahoma City. One note of relevant context: Chauncey Billups, the former Pistons All-Star point guard, was a possible candidate on the radar of Detroit’s front office, sources said, before Billups was hired to lead the Trail Blazers in 2021.

Whether that means Billups would leave the Blazers to join the Pistons or if he becomes an option should Portland fire the 2004 Finals MVP is up in the air. Perhaps he’ll decide that the Detroit job is more lucrative and a chance for him to start fresh.

The chance of him simply bolting the Blazers is incredibly slim, but Fischer’s article has that ball rolling now.