Some Pistons Protest Coach

[EmpireWF]

Reports: Some Detroit Pistons AWOL to protest coach - ESPN

A number of Detroit Pistons were rumored to be leaving the team around the trade deadline, but not like this.

Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton and Chris Wilcox missed the team's shootaround Friday morning before that night's game against the Sixers in Philadelphia, and team sources told multiple media outlets that the players were staging a protest.

Sources told the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News that the shootaround boycott was directed at second-year coach John Kuester, who has clashed with players in the past.

Team spokesman Cletus Lewis said that McGrady had a headache, Prince an upset stomach and Hamilton and Wilcox missed the bus from the team hotel.

Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye also missed the bus, but they arrived toward the end of a media session, Lewis said.

Ben Wallace also missed the shootaround but was dealing with a family matter, Lewis said, as he has over the past month.

"We'll go with the group that was here," said Kuester about facing the 76ers, according to the Free Press. "We got a number of guys that have a bug, but these guys went through shootaround the way it was supposed to. We have some things, some excuses, not excuses, but absences because of headache and stuff like that.

"We'll go with this group right here because they went through shootaround."

Prince and Hamilton are questionable for the game with a sore groin and sore back, respectively. They were two names that came up in trade talk over the past month.

Hamilton was rumored to be headed to New Jersey in a three-team trade with the Nuggets that would have landed Carmelo Anthony in New Jersey. That deal fell through. The Dallas Mavericks reportedly expressed interest in Prince at the deadline but couldn't pull off a trade.

Hamilton is averaging a career-worst 13.3 points per game after going for 17.7 for his 11-year career, the last eight of which came with the Pistons.

Prince has spent his entire eight-year career with Detroit and is having another solid, if unspectacular year, with averages of 14.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

McGrady is in his first year with the Pistons and is averaging only 8.4 points per game. Wilcox is getting only 16.7 minutes per game and averaging 5.6 points.

The most important numbers for the Pistons, however, concern where they are in the standings. Detroit is 21-38, mired in fourth place in the Central and 6 1/2 games behind Indiana for the final playoff spot in the East.

The Pistons didn't make the playoffs last year for the first time in nine years. They won it all in 2003-04.

A team source told the Free Press that it wasn't clear what the next step would be for the Pistons, but he acknowledged that Detroit had just gone through an organized protest.

 

[StealthShot]

The Pistons should have dealt Prince before the deadline, I think the players might win this battle and get this coach fired though.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

I think if they were gonna fire Kuester they would've done it already. Maybe at the end of the year.. but clearly management doesnt want to pay him out to do nothing.

 

[Buzzman]

It'd be awesome if he got fired. 3 coaches in 3 years, great job Dumars, fucking living off 3 trades and has done nothing but shit since. Hiring Flip Saunders cost Detroit a shot at a championship and set the franchise back by 10 years.

 

[JeremyHight]

Dumars went from the best executive to one of the worst in about 3 years. I still cannot believe he traded away Billups for Iverson.

 

[Golden Taters]

It'd be awesome if he got fired. 3 coaches in 3 years, great job Dumars, fucking living off 3 trades and has done nothing but shit since. Hiring Flip Saunders cost Detroit a shot at a championship and set the franchise back by 10 years.

Resigning Rip Hamilton to a 3 year deal and trading Chauncey Billups didn't exactly help either :sheep:

 

[Buzzman]

Yes but Flip Saunders was a terrible coach who couldn't draw up a play to stop the other team for his life. We made it to the finals on sheer chemistry alone but when we got to Boston or Cleveland, Saunders was exposed as the terrible coach that he is. Joe let that shit go on for 4 years. Ben Wallace said in an interview about Saunders that rarely he never focused or emphasized defense and that's why he split to Chicago.

 

[MRN]

God anyone remember the Pistons when they didn't suck? How did this happen?

 

[EmpireWF]

Hamilton at center of Pistons turmoil - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

About a week prior to his banishment to the Detroit Pistons’ bench in January, Richard Hamilton berated coach John Kuester in a jarring and expletive-filled diatribe on the practice court, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. As stunned coaches and teammates watched, Hamilton bellowed at Kuester that he had been a failure in his two seasons in Detroit, blown the opportunity the franchise afforded him and was nothing more than a career assistant coach, sources said. Despite Hamilton yelling within inches of him, Kuester didn’t respond.

Several of the team’s younger players were mortified watching it and privately told agents and associates they wished they had the courage to stand up, confront Hamilton and try to take control back from the disgruntled veteran. Nevertheless, Hamilton influences a powerful lobby in the Pistons’ locker room, including veteran leaders Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace .

The early January incident was the second time Hamilton had initiated a confrontation with Kuester this season, sources said, and it ultimately spurred the benching that led to such public acrimony. Once a cornerstone of an NBA championship and six straight trips to the Eastern Conference finals, Hamilton helped orchestrate a player protest on Friday morning by skipping the team’s morning shootaround in Philadelphia. Kuester played Hamilton two more games in early January –which included a scoreless performance against Chicago –before moving him to the bench on a permanent basis. Since Jan. 10, Hamilton’s played only one game for the Pistons.

With $25 million left on a contract that runs throughthe 2013 season, Hamilton had been nearly impossible to trade for Detroit. Still, Pistons general manager Joe Dumars and Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant had an agreement to send Hamilton and a lottery-protected 2012 first-round draft pick for a $12.6 million trade exception and a second-round draft pick on Thursday, sources said. Cleveland was mostly interested in the draft pick, but was willing to let Hamilton join the team for the remainder of his contract. Once Hamilton made clear he didn’t want to play for a last-place team, his representatives discussed a contract buyout that would’ve allowed him to likely join the Chicago Bulls, sources said. Cleveland wanted him to take $18 million in the buyout, arguing that he could secure his 2011-12 salary now when it’s possible that money wouldn’t be paid him during a lockout next season. Hamilton declined, and the trade died within an hour of the Thursday afternoon deadline.

Hamilton stayed in Detroit, and turned out to be one of several players who boycotted Friday’s shootaround and were benched in the 110-94 loss to the 76ers. Fines are expected for the players who were without an excuse for missing the shootaround. Despite Kuester’s struggles, the prospect of firing him in-season has been difficult to even broach because of the uncertainty of the franchise’s expected ownership change. As the organization waits for a pending sale to businessman Tom Gore, basketball operations have been largely crippled to make moves that impact finances.

 

[mgoblue2290]

Can't believe what Rip has become. He used to be a good guy, never really any problems now he is just a whiny overpaid bitch. The whole team is falling apart basically and it sucks we can't have a fire sale because of all the ridiculous contracts Joe D gave out. The team hasn't been right since its leader, Billups, was dealt.

 

[krulmichael]

This whole situation would have been avoided if we never would have traded Billups, God do I miss that dude. I still remember that day I came home and heard we traded him for AI, I thought it was a joke. It's sad to see what this team has become and Dumars is becoming like a less scary Al Davis. Oh well, there's always 2k to drown my sorrows.

Sidenizzle - Kuester is a bitch. That is all.

 

[Chrispy]

RIP needs to grow up, if he doesn't like the pistons then he should of approved the deal. He didn't, so man up and stop being a baby.

 

[Chrispy]

Sources say the alleged player boycott was actually a "perfect storm" that resulted in half the team not showing up or showing up late. Tayshaun Prince and Tracy McGrady were both ill. Ben Wallace has a brother who is gravely ill and has been emotionally distraught for several days. Chris Wilcox overslept. Austin Daye and Rodney Stuckey missed the team bus because the departure time was moved up from 11 to 10:30 a.m. They have insisted to team officials they did not receive notification of the change.

The only player who actually missed shootaround without explanation, one source said, was Hamilton.

"The team boycott idea is being overblown," said the source. "It was more miscommunication than defiance."

Sources told the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News on Friday that the shootaround boycott was directed at Kuester, who has clashed with players in the past.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com on Friday that Pistons veterans tried to organize a teamwide boycott of Detroit's shootaround before its last game prior to the All-Star break.

But the walkout was called off, sources said, when some Pistons players were told that Kuester was about to be dismissed during All-Star Weekend. Detroit went out that night and scored a 115-109 overtime victory at home over a hot Indiana team.

Sources: Richard Hamilton declined Detroit Pistons' offer to trade him; boycott 'overblown' - ESPN

:smh: @ RIP

 

[strahanfan92]

Jesus christ who fastened his mask too tight?

 

[guchi45]

Fuck that COACH! FUCK YOU!

 

[Golden Taters]

I don't blame Rip Hamilton at all, he has been treated like shit through this whole ordeal. Kuester needs to go.

 

[JeremyHight]

Rip isn't to blame in this mess, I think he is one of the few people who actually cares about trying to make this team better. He knows that Dumars has fucked this team over again and again. He took the team with arguably the best chemistry and destroyed it with bad coaching moves and horrible trades/signings. I get that we had to lose Ben Wallace, Chicago vastly overpaid for him by tens of millions of dollars. I don't get why we had horrible depth after the championship run and why we started getting rid of our best players.

Once this team gets rid of Joe, we'll be back on the right track, imo.

 

[jeffx]

This whole situation would have been avoided if we never would have traded Billups, God do I miss that dude. I still remember that day I came home and heard we traded him for AI, I thought it was a joke. It's sad to see what this team has become and Dumars is becoming like a less scary Al Davis. Oh well, there's always 2k to drown my sorrows.

Sidenizzle - Kuester is a bitch. That is all.

I'm glad we have Chauncey here in NYC. My respect for his game(and leadership) has gone up 100% after last night.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Apparently Rip and Kuester have squashed the beef. Hope so.. its a shame Rip is being done dirty and not getting ANY kind of run.

Rip Hamilton recently had a long talk with coach John Kuester, and said their relationship has improved. He also said there was no "player protest" last Friday.
Rip "went home Friday during shootaround" and called at the last minute, but took responsibility for the poor decision. He playfully bumped fists with Kuester after Monday's practice, so apparently they've moved past the drama, but his role in the rotation is still a question mark.