Sixers coach and former Pistons coach Doug Collins says assistant Michael Curry is ready to lead his own team again.

Pistons fans don’t have fond memories of the one season Curry coached the team — the 2008-09 campaign that ended in a first-round sweep at the hands of the Cavs.

But Collins thinks Curry has learned from his trials with the Pistons by working as the de facto defensive coordinator of the 76ers the past two seasons.

“Michael Curry is a brilliant basketball coach,” Collins said recently. “I think the one thing Michael realizes is when he took over that job in Detroit, he wasn’t quite seasoned. Maybe he wasn’t ready to do that and he was put in a very difficult situation.”

via Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press