A league source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because a contract between Kuester and Detroit had yet to be signed, said the 54-year-old met with Dumars, Detroit's president of Basketball operations, for two hours Monday, and the two talked again Tuesday.

Regardless of how Kuester fares, this past week showed that -- at least when it comes to highly regarded coaches -- Dumars does not have the same kind of pull he once had.

First, he wanted former Pistons coach Doug Collins, who pulled out of the running early in the process.

Dumars spent the bulk of his time afterward chasing former Dallas coach Avery Johnson, but that fell through Tuesday after an agreement could not be reached on salary or the number of guaranteed years.

"I looked at it, I was interested in it, but I was only interested in it if we could agree on a vision for the team going forward," Johnson said in an interview with ESPN's "SportsCenter".

That left Kuester, who, once again, may turn out to be an excellent head coach.

But it does not change the fact that he was not Detroit's first (or second) choice, which speaks to how Dumars' affinity for dumping coaches so quickly might be catching up to him.

After past firings, a new coach in Detroit was hired within days.

That's because selling the Pistons back then was much easier.

They were a championship team, with a well-respected owner in Bill Davidson. Dumars usually made personnel decisions that provided both short-term and long-term benefits.

But a lot has changed.

At best, the Pistons are a team in the hunt to make the playoffs. And longtime owner Bill Davidson, arguably Dumars' biggest supporter in the organization, passed away in March. The blockbuster trade in November that sent Chauncey Billups to Denver and Allen Iverson to Detroit, had the long-term effect of positioning the Pistons to have enough salary cap space to attract free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, who are expected to sign their respective deals today.

But the short-term impact of the trade was a miserable 2008-09 season in which Detroit finished with a 39-43 record and was swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Talking with several league officials this week, none was surprised it took Dumars longer than usual to find a replacement for Curry.

"You know Joe is getting rid of coaches because he truly believes he has a better shot of winning a championship with someone else," said a former NBA coach this week, "but when you go through as many good coaches as Joe has, you don't go there now unless you either 1), you're looking for your first head coaching job or 2), have more job security than the guys he got rid of."

Regardless of who the coach is, Dumars has to show greater patience.

Coaches, much like players, do not always develop at the same rate.

Kuester, 54, struggled miserably in his previous head coaching stint at George Washington in the late 1980s. Since then, he has worked diligently on several NBA benches for some of the game's top coaches, including Hall of Famer Larry Brown.

He is better equipped to be a head coach now than he was 20 years ago.

That still might not be good enough to keep a job in Detroit beyond a couple seasons.

But things are different now. The economic woes most NBA teams are experiencing make it vital to make prudent decisions when it comes to hiring coaches.

So it only makes sense that Dumars, while still wanting to win at the highest level possible, shows greater patience now than he has in the past.

Because if Detroit is staring at another head coaching search in a year or two, that might not be the only position it is looking to replace.