They're not in a precarious position at all. You tear it down now and rebuild over the next 3-5 years, or you keep pretending you're competitive and spend 7-10 years in the hockey hell where you're not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to draft top tier talent.
its easy for us to say, precarious for the upper management as they look at attendance numbers, concessions, arena costs, taxes, etc
i would bet its not such an easy position to completely tear down a team, knowing the team following/attendance/merchandise sales are going to slip a bit when you are selling off half the team when you are the one paying the bills/managing the organizations bottom line
granted Detroit has never seemed like a cheap team, they havent also been in a position like this for three decades
also, if a FULL rebuild takes, lets say 5-7 years, im not convinced Holland wants to commit to that at 62, it would pretty much take him right into retirement. i bet he continues to try and navigate the waters on the fly and plug holes every year as opposed to having a five year plan
i mean lets not forget, you need complete sign off from ownership for a complete tear down with the premise that the bottom line will hurt the next few years. not all owners sign off on that and typically say "figure it out or you're fired and i'll find someone else who will. you arent wasting my money for the next 5 years"