PistonsNationBlog.com - Detroit Pistons News & Views

While most of us in Pistons Nation are letting out a big “yeah right” to the proposed trade (to Det: Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo / to Bos: Stuckey, Rip, Prince) Kelly Dwyer is playing a little Devil’s Advocate suggesting Joe missed the boat by him his underling giving Danny Ainge’s people the ‘ol we’re gonna just go ahead and pass on this one mmm’kay.

Here’s what Kelly wrote on Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie blog:

And, bless Joe Dumars, but what the hell is he thinking?
For 2009-10, yes, this could be a big deal for the Celtics. Hamilton could have a bounce-back year, same with Tayshaun Prince, and Rodney Stuckey should improve. Based on sheer depth, alone, Detroit could have handed the hated C’s another Eastern Conference championship. Not unlike the way the Celtics possibly handed Detroit the same thing five years ago.
Beyond that? They would have handed Boston an above-average offensive shooting guard with a three-year, $34 million dollar contract. A 29-year old defensive stalwart, already on the decline, who is owed about $21.5 million over the next two years. And Rodney Stuckey, a nice player, possibly a point guard (his assist ratio rivaled that of Shane Battier(notes) and Derek Fisher’s(notes) in 2008-09), and definitely a guy looking for a contract extension after next year.
What would Detroit have gotten? Sweet, sweet relief.

Sounds like Kelly Dwyer feels Dumars owes Boston for facilitating the ‘Sheed deal?  If you keep reading Dwyer goes on to suggest that Joe might be in denial about this team and what phase of rebuilding we’re actually in saying none of the three Detroit players mentioned are guys you can build around.

Myself, I don’t like the deal from a competitive standpoint.   I’d like to have a point like Rondo (with some sort of caveat that Rajon go through a Hazmat grade disinfectant process to get that Celtic taint off of him before he throws on the red, white and blue).  I wouldn’t mind seeing another package with Rondo in it, but I’d want no part of Ray Allen even with his big expiring contract.

How many moves can we make for cap space?  Unless Joe plans on suiting up Ben Franklin and the boys we’re eventaully going to need some players not just contract assets.

Oldie but a goodie.  This is definitely one of my all-time favorite Piston commercials.

I found this to be pretty amusing:

“Oh, no, Will’s got a lot of confidence,” Hamilton said.

So much so that against the 76ers, he went to the free-throw line to shoot a technical. Hamilton immediately stepped in.

“I told him, ‘Hold on now, no technicals,” Hamilton said. “I shoot those.”

Take your eye off your date for a split second and the next thing you know Will’s up on her doing the cabbage patch.

Sorry for the lack of posts and updates, but to pass the time here’s an awesome video of Rip Hamilton paying a visit to his mask guy. That panda is fierce!

And here Rip shows off some of his new acquisitions

Nash might have owned the night as far as assisting goes, but this is still one pretty bounce pass from AI to Rip

“I think Grant going for it added more to the play,” Iverson said. “It would not have seemed as spectacular if he hadn’t tried to kick it. But that’s a play I’ve practiced since I was a kid when I saw Magic Johnson do it.” -DetNews

From A. Sherrod Blakely on milve:

AUBURN HILLS — Richard Hamilton was told that the groin injury that kept him out of eight games might linger.

Turns out, those folks were right.

Hamilton said the injury has bothered him for the past few games, but the pain became more intense early on in Detroit’s 98-89 win at Minnesota on Wednesday.

A decision on whether he will play won’t be made until shortly before tip-off.

“Mentally, I’m going in saying that I don’t want to miss that game,” said Hamilton, who did not practice on Thursday. “It’s tough. We did a lot of treatment today. Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow.”

Two ways of looking at this:

1) Rip is just starting to find his groove as a 6th man and we could really use his offense against Boston.  Plus you’d like Rip in there against Ray Allen for the slice factor.

2) The bulk of the 7 game win streak was done while Rip was out dealing with this same groin injury.  Although they were wins by the slimmest of margins, they were wins.

Also, If he can’t play that has to erase any inkling that Curry might have to play that 3-guard crap against Boston.   Hopefully he wouldn’t anyways, but you never know.

Even if he wasn’t too keen on the idea of coming off the bench at first Rip is showing his true colors.

“A lot of people have made a lot of things about this,” Hamilton said. “Regardless, you want to win games. Me and Allen both know that. They told me I was coming off the bench, that it was something MC (Curry) wanted and I said, ‘Fine, cool.’

“The bottom line is you want to win games. If this is the best way we can win a championship, then I am all for it. The thing is, we have two great scorers, me and A.I. We have to figure out how both of us can be our best.”- Det News

It’s be a whole lot easier for Rip to take being a 6th man as an insult.  Allen Iverson probably won’t be a Piston come next season whereas Rip just signed a 3 year extension days before his close friend and All-Star backcourt mate of 6 years, Chauncey Billups, was trade away to Denver.  After 611 games starting in the Pistons red, white, and blue shouldn’t he have enough pride to believe he’s the team’s best option at shooting guard slot?  Year after year of being a team’s top earns you a starters cred.  This isn’t the same as Primoz Brezec constantly whining because at one time he started a game or two for Charlotte.

Michael Curry as a rookie coach was really between a rock and a hard place on this one.  It was so much easier for him before the trade.  Four of the five starters were no-brainers, he just had to do a better job than Flip did with getting the young guys involved.  Then the trade comes along and he unsuccessfully tries to mesh three guards into ’small ball’ lineup.

Stuckey emerges as the best option to run the point.  Then Curry has to choose between a former league MVP in Allen Iverson, and a starter mainstay and NBA Champion he actually started along side when Rip arrived in Detroit.  That’s a lot of combined ego to choose between.  It probably could work either way but he chose Rip and to Rip’s credit he accpeted his new role.

One game in and into Rip’s sixth man role and it looks promising.  Rip had an off game, 3/9 for 7 points, but the Pistons as a team played well.  Rip hasn’t come off the bench since February of 2002 as a member of the Washington Wizards so we’ll have to excuse the rust to the role.

“Probably one of the weirdest things I’ve dealt with since I’ve been in the league,” said the 10-year veteran. “It’s kind of like you got to switch your routine all up. It was tough.” - Free Press

Hamilton put his best foot forward employing heat packs and a courtside exercise bike to stay warm for when the team needs his scoring touch.

Other members of the second unit are going to benfit from Rip joining them.  Will Bynum is getting into the rotation behind Stuckey.  Will is set to be Rip’s new backcourt mate so he’s studied game films to familiarize himself with Rip’s sweet spots.  Jason Maxiell has already realized the benfits of Rip’s new role:

“We had a lot of offense with him coming off the bench,” he said. “When they all focused on him, it got us all open.” – mlive

I personally would have chose Iverson to come off the bench, but I’m not an NBA coach just a hack fan for the most part.  But, as a fan I’m with Rip.   What ever makes the team better and wins games is what I’m eager to endorse.

I’m a day late on this one, but here you have it:

Pistons coach Michael Curry announced today that Richard Hamilton will lose his place in the starting lineup as the team tries to overcome its recent struggles.

Power forward Amir Johnson will replace him in the starting lineup most nights. Center Kwame Brown will start against especially big teams.

[…] “I feel we are better defensively and rebounding” with three forwards, Curry said. “We have struggled sometimes being able to score at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters. We think, by featuring Rip during those times, we can (change) that.”

Curry said Hamilton will average about 30 minutes of playing time per game off the bench. He will decide his late-game substitution pattern on the fly. - Free Press

It’s no secret, I thought it should be AI, but I’m willing to give this a chance to see how it goes.  Winning is winning, no matter who’s playing and when.

Tonight’s game in Utah will probably be the last game Rip will miss due to his groin strain, which would put his return to the hardwood Tuesday when the Pistons take on the Bobcats at the Palace.

That’ll give Michael Curry a couple days to solve his three guard dilema.   If anyone was expecting Rip to go to the bench if that’s what Curry decides you thought wrong:

Hamilton, speaking informally before the game, was clearly not keen on coming off the bench. When asked what he thought would happen once he got back healthy, he said he planned on returning to the starting lineup.

“That’s the only option,” he said.

When it was suggested that coming off the bench might be another option, he said, “That ain’t happening.” -Det News

Though opinions vary on who out of Rip and AI should start the game on the bench, we can all agree this team is better with a more tradition lineup.  Even if we’re only winning by the narrowest of margins, we’re still winning.  Something or better yet someone is going to have to give.

PN has gathered some of the best Pistons’ bloggers to discuss a single but pressing question, WHICH SG SHOULD COME OFF THE BENCH?

At the start of the season we were all saying what a great a combination we had off the bench with Stuckey and Dice.  Well, the Iverson trade scrapped those plans.  We’ve all seen how starting three guards in an unorthodox a small-ball lineup does not work for the Pistons.  Rip’s injury forced (thankfully) Michael Curry to go to a more traditional lineup and the Pistons are playing better on both ends of the ball (HT: Rodney Stuckey).

Here’s a cross section of bloggers and their opinions on whom should be Dice’s bench BFF?

Who wouldn’t want to come off the bench with this guy?

(more…)

MLive:

AUBURN HILLS — It appears unlikely that Richard Hamilton will return to the Detroit Pistons lineup this week.
Hamilton had an MRI performed on Tuesday, and said the results showed a slight tear.

This isn’t the first time Hamilton has had problems with his groin.

“I had a problem with my groin in Washington,” Hamilton said. “I did the same thing, strained it, partially tore it. And I was out six to eight weeks. When I did it this time, it kind of felt the same way.”

However, Hamilton said there’s one big difference this time around.

“I went to get the MRI earlier, than I did in Washington,” he said. “And found out what it was. Now we can attack it the way that we want to attack it.”

While there’s no definitive timetable for his return, Hamilton expects to be back in the lineup at some point during the team’s upcoming West coast trip, which begins on Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Anyone else think this in a funny way might be music to Mike Curry’s ears?  We’re on a roll right now and this puts off having to ask either Rip or Iverson to come off the bench so we’re not using that dookie three guard lineup.

Rip took a Mike Bibby elbow to the dome late in the fourth quarter to which no foul was called.  He laid there on the court while the Hawks went on a hardwood power play down at the other end.  Anyone familiar with Rip’s fiery nature probably, like me, started to calculate to number of possessions needed to catch up after the inevitable tech freebie was tacked on.

Rip barked at referee Rodney Mott from the bench and the tech was awarded.  Then you see Rip headed towards the showers.  Since there was only one tech foul shot I think to myself that they must be taking him to the lockerroom to check out his temple area where he was inadvertantly clocked, but that wasn’t the case.  Rip was tossed. I’d never seen that before, and it also caught the Pistons off guard, well off guard:

On his way to the bench — he was subbed out to let physical therapist Arnie Kander look at him — he said to Mott, “You all are (expletive) terrible.”

Hamilton knew he would get a technical but was shocked when asked to leave the bench.

“I don’t deserve to get kicked out of the game for that,” he said. “There was a lot of worse stuff being said on the floor. I was in the wrong to say what I said, but by no means do you get kicked out of a game for that. You get one tech.”

Hamilton didn’t know he had been ejected until he was asked to leave the bench.

“They said I had to go and I was like, ‘Go where?’?” he said. [Det News]

Michael Curry feels Mott did Rip and the ‘Stonz a favor with the one tech eject:

“He (Mott) was being nice,” Pistons coach Michael Curry said. “If he would have gave two (technicals), they would have shot two free throws. Whether the guy missed the foul or not, Rip can’t lose it, get a technical in that situation.” [mlive]

After another embarrassing Sunday loss Michael Curry is talking about switching the style up and if they hate then let ‘em hate and watch the losses pile up:

“As a group, we started the game once again … we didn’t play with the level of effort and focus and intensity to start games with,” Curry said. “I’m going to do something with that lineup.”

Curry said he hasn’t made any concrete decisions on what that change will involve, but it likely will mean second-year guard Rodney Stuckey will be in the starting lineup, where he’ll be joined by Allen Iverson, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince (sliding from small forward to power forward) and Rasheed Wallace (playing center of power forward). – mlive

I hope that’s not what he’s thinking.  Small ball sucks, and since when was Kwame the problem?  He’s done what has been asked of him.  Where’s the bench scoring going to come from?  McDyess is effective, but more in a complimentary sense.

Start Stuckey but either Allen Iverson or Rip Hamilton needs to go to the bench.  They don’t compliment each other at all.  I’m sure it’d be tough for either of those two to accept.  I personally would want Iverson coming off the pine.  He could play his game better with a hustle group.  Have Afflalo and Herrmann out there for a perimeter touch when the double and triple teams come.  Meanwhile Rip and co. could get back to running the Ripster off screens.  Besides that Rip just signed a 3 year extension, where I’d be willing to bet it’s a one and done for AI.

From USA Today via Eric Musselman’s Basketball Notebook:

“I tell people when you see me on the basketball court, that’s easy,” Hamilton says. “If you let dogs outside after they’ve been in the house all day, the first thing they want to do is take off. So I get out of the house and take off with them and I run till they quit. And if you know anything about dogs, they don’t quit for a long time.”

Former Kings and Warriors coach Eric Musselman is blogging.  I’ve not checked the site’s authenticity, but it looks legit.  Either way it’s a pretty good analysis and a good job of collecting quotes pertaining to Rip Hamilton’s never ending energy.

Stephen Jackson of the Warriors when asked if he’d wear anything to protect his eye that was poked by Clipper’s Chris Kaman:

“No goggles. No, no, no. Never. I’m not going to be like Rip Hamilton, where my nose is broken eight years ago and I still wear a mask,” said Jackson, who injured the same eye during the preseason. -SFGate

Ok, I understand a guy not wanting to wear goggles or whatever, but what’s the point of bringing Rip’s name into it? What’s wrong with just saying “naw man, no eye wear for me” and leaving it at that? Furthermore you can’t tell me that Stepehen Jackson’s mug wouldn’t benefit from some type of covering.