Pistons officially hire Lawrence Frank as new head coach

**Admin** Sat Jul 30, 2011 2:51 am

The Detroit Pistons have reached an agreement with Lawrence Frank to be their new head coach. He'll receive a three-year contract with a team option for a fourth year.

Frank coached the New Jersey Nets in 2004-10 with a career record is 225-241. He won two division titles with the Nets and advanced to the second round of the playoffs three times.

He was most recently an assistant for the Boston Celtics, under Doc Rivers. Financial terms of Frank's contract were not immediately available.

The Pistons narrowed their original list of candidates to Frank and former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson earlier this month. Woodson was an assistant on the Pistons' 2004 championship team.

Frank will be Detroit’s sixth coach in 11 seasons when the NBA lockout ends. The Pistons fired John Kuester in June after they missed the playoffs in both of his two seasons.

Frank, a 40-year-old native of Teaneck, N.J., spent four seasons as a student manager for Bob Knight at Indiana. He was an assistant at Marquette and Tennessee before becoming an NBA assistant in Vancouver and New Jersey.