In a mandatory shootaround last week, Hamilton. Stuckey, McGrady, Daye, Hamilton , Wilcox and Wallace were no shows. They are on a collision course with their coach Kuester who apparently has lost the team. You know the coach will get canned but how many of these players will be back? This is a major mess and I am sure Joe Dumars is plotting revenge.
Hamilton was all but traded but torpedoed the deal because it would have cost him money. He has been sat down for long stretches of games. He has to go . But his age and contract make it difficult to move him. I thought Stuckey was more mature.
I saw that Hamilton put a stop to a trade that would have sent him to Cleveland. How would it have cost him money, though? I’m not all that familiar with that situation.
I agree Kuester is out after this season. He really didn’t have anything to work with. And the Pistons will have a hard time finding anyone who wants that job.
The boycott thing may be overstated, but yes, the team is a mess. You didn’t even mention that the team is being sold. It sounds like the Pistons have tried to buy out the rest of Hamilton’s contract, but he doesn’t want to give up the money he’s owed (I read one report that there’s $22 million left on his deal, and an offer of $16 million wasn’t enough for them). Or he wants to screw them. I’m guessing he turned down the trade to Cleveland because they’re horrible. He would have been a good pickup for the Bulls.
Yeah, I think a lot of folks were scared that Hamilton would go to Chicago.
The team’s been in a mess for a few years now, and Joe D has come back down to Earth in a hurry. They’re being sold now, so that’s the gorilla in the room right now.
They are being sold so management can not go and buy big time free agents. That would affect the bottom line and the price. So they have been spinning their wheels since Davidson died.
This team has been a coach killer for quite a while. They have been pretty successful but have gone through coaches on a steady basis. The players seem to be able to push them out.
This is one time the coach might actually win. None of those players figure in Detroits long term plans, they have been actively trying to get rid of Hamilton all season. This is not a playoff team, this is not a team that needs a few pieces to get back into it, at this point tanking the season is just as good a plan as any.
They might not fire Kuester during the season, but there’s no reason to keep him as coach. Nobody seems to like him and he doesn’t have any positives in his record.
Stuckey was supposed to be the future. Too bad. Wallace is hanging on to paychecks . Hamilton is just greedy. He has not made enough money. McGrady was just a shot to draw fans like the Iverson move. Bottom line, they have to win to fill the seats.
Meh. What else would Joe D. say? They could keep Kuester for the reasons Digital C gave. But why would they? This season is a negative for Kuester. Where’s the positive to offset that?
Best reason I’ve read is that if you fire Kuester, the players know that they run the team and you’ve effectively undermined any other coach you hire. They don’t like a coach for whatever reason? They do the same crap again. At least whatever players manage to return next season know they can’t just pull this crap because the coach reduced their minutes.
And at this point, I’d keep him just to piss off Hamilton.
Greg Monroe?
They should have been satisfied with making the ECF 6 years straight. They got greedy and blew up the team instead of making little changes.
They should bench all the players for the rest of the season. You screw with your coach, you put a giant black mark next to your name for the rest of your career.
At what point does missing mandatory practices allow the team to say the player wasn’t fulfilling their contract?
Probably depends if it was in their contracts. I doubt any agent would let such a thing be put into a player’s contract though
In the NBA hierarchy of black marks, such a mark would be of no consequence. Players get coaches fired all the time. They strangle them . They refuse to go into the game when they decide not to. Then I could mention what fine citizens they are off the court.
Yes there are many exceptions.
The problem is that these players aren’t actually that good. Why is a team going to put up with a player who’s marginal AND is a huge troublemaker?
At least Latrell Sprewell and Scottie Pippen were All-Star talents when they pulled their stunts.
How is this a positive for keeping Kuester?
Straws. I grasp at them.