The Pistons have fired head coach Michael Curry.

The Detroit Pistons fired Michael Curry as head coach on Tuesday.

Doug Collins is believed to be a leading candidate for the job, according to a source.

Collins coached Joe Dumars with the Pistons from 1995-97, and has been out of coaching since the Washington Wizards fired him in 2003.

Avery Johnson is also said to be high on the candidate list.

Bill Laimbeer has been mentioned by some as a candidate, but Yahoo! refutes the possibility flatly.

Kwame Brown could have opted out of his contract with the Detroit Pistons and become a free agent, but will instead play out the final year of his deal which pays $4.1 million this season.

"Kwame felt like he made a lot of strides in the second half of the season with Detroit, and would like an opportunity to build upon that," said his agent, Mark Bartelstein.

Pistons coach Michael Curry needs to work on his relationship with star guard Richard Hamilton.

"As far as the relationship being strained, it was a difficult season," Curry said.

The coach admitted that Hamilton was upset over a variety of things last season.

"Was Rip very upset that he had to come off the bench? He was very, very upset," Curry said. "He was upset that he had to split time with (Allen) Iverson. He was upset that Iverson was here and Chauncey (Billups) wasn't. Rip was upset with a lot of things this year, but I don't put much stock into what that means with our relationship."

According to sources, what upset Hamilton the most was Curry's decision to start Iverson over him without privately telling him first.

"I'm not going to get into that," Curry said. "However it was done, it wasn't going to be right or good for Rip because, at that time, he didn't want to come off the bench. He wasn't happy about that. I understand that."

Jonas Jerebko, a second-round pick of the Pistons, says that his buyout clause won't keep him from playing in Detroit this season.

"Unlike a lot of the European players in the draft, Jonas has a very affordable buyout clause," said agent Doug Neustadt. "Getting out of that, that's not going to be a problem."

Jerebko is expected to play with Detroit's summer league team in Las Vegas, and played for Biella in the Italian league this past season.

"We're looking at him as a guy that could come in and play," said Scott Perry, Detroit's vice president of basketball operations. "But we'll evaluate all that once summer league comes.

"He did a real nice job when he came in and worked out. He was very impressive, very athletic young man, could finish at the rim. We like that about him."

Pistons president Joe Dumars says that he won't put the team in a position to have to deal with "drama" ever again.

Dumars used the 15th overall pick on Austin Daye, a soft-spoken forward out of Gonzaga. He couldn't be more different than Allen Iverson, who Dumars was undoubtedly referring to with his comments.

"Never again will I allow us to be in a position where we're dealing with issues, where we're dealing with drama," said Dumars.

Detroit coach Michael Curry said that the team lost a lot of games on Sunday, and that their habits many have played a role.

"I think Joe was madder than anybody else about us losing all those Sunday games," said Curry, "and usually that has something to do with what you were doing Saturday night."

Detroit will trade the rights to Chase Budinger to the Houston Rockets for a future 2nd round pick and cash, sources tell Yahoo!.

The Pistons will not extend a qualifying offer to forward Walter Herrmann.

The decision means that Herrmann will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Detroit News is reporting that the forward is expected to play in Europe.

The Bucks have flipped Fabricio Oberto to the Pistons in exchange for Amir Johnson, according to a source.

Oberto was acquired by Milwaukee from San Antonio earlier on Wednesday.

RealGM Note: The move will save Detroit in their salary cap space pursuits, as Oberto's contract is non-guaranteed.

Speculation is that the Pistons will make a big push to sign unrestricted free-agent Ben Gordon this off-season.  

Despite being cautious about adding salary in 2010, the Knicks will reportedly pursue Gordon as well.