Ugly Situation in Detroit

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.

And this from practice boycott (apparently due to Injuries)

Several Detroit Pistons skipped at least part of the team’s shootaround and sat out a 110-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night, the latest blemish in a difficult season for the fallen franchise.

T-Mac's Reaction to Kuester getting ejected:

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Damn,just fire him!!
If a coach gets to the point of losing control of the team,he is done...

They should fire Kuester as early as now.

Kuester is an awful coach, but that is just unprofessional what the players did.

Kuester suck. I still can't believe that why do Pistons have a lot of losses. This roster could do better with Larry Brown or Flip Saunders.

Joe Dumars has a lot to answer for. Team has been a bit of a mockery since Big Ben left in free agency to the Bulls

Ehhh, things didn't fall apart until the Billups trade, then subsequent destruction of the franchise with the inexplicable Hamilton, Gordon and Villanueva deals.

The players handled the situation poorly, no question there, but it seems like Kuester has a lot to answer for and it's probably time to show him the door. The whole situation with Richard Hamilton is ridiculous and reminds me of what the Pacers did with TJ Ford a couple of years ago; if they don't want to keep him around, try and trade him (mind you, that's difficult to do when any trade value he might have had has been killed by burying him on the bench). If you can't get a trade done, try and work out a buyout.

Kuester sucks and the team sucks. They need to blow the whole damn thing up in the offseason and start over. Really.

Yeah, they are worse off than Charlotte. Pretty much their entire roster has negative value though. To unload the contracts of Charlie V, Ben Gordon, Rip and Maxiell, they'd have to trade some young assets (Daye, hopefully not their best player in Monroe. their lottery picks) with them. Detroit is fuuuucked.

They should just take a few years off, wait for all their contracts to expire and start fresh from there. by which time they will have amassed enough #1 picks to take over the NBA and then overpay them.

According to Woj, a deal that would've sent Hamilton to the Cavs where he possibly would've sought a buyout ultimately fell through.

If it's true, I don't know why Hamilton didn't just get out while he could. I think a team with Baron Davis, Rip Hamilton & Antawn Jamison isn't going to end up in last place. They might not be a playoff team, but it's better than the toxic environment with the Pistons.

Well yeah something's wrong in Detroit. Kuester's time has come, he must leave.

If it's true, I don't know why Hamilton didn't just get out while he could. I think a team with Baron Davis, Rip Hamilton & Antawn Jamison isn't going to end up in last place. They might not be a playoff team, but it's better than the toxic environment with the Pistons.

I guess he just didn't like the buyout offer with a possible lockout looming but I agree, he'd be getting out of a situation he's clearly unhappy in and it's not like he'd be leaving a championship contender in doing so.

If the trade and buyout pushed through, he can sign with a playoff team. It's what he wanted, right?

One would assume so, but with the uncertainty of a lockout he probably doesn't want to give up too much money either.

So he would just stay in Detroit for the money?

Apparently.

If it's true, I don't know why Hamilton didn't just get out while he could. I think a team with Baron Davis, Rip Hamilton & Antawn Jamison isn't going to end up in last place. They might not be a playoff team, but it's better than the toxic environment with the Pistons.

I guess he just didn't like the buyout offer with a possible lockout looming but I agree, he'd be getting out of a situation he's clearly unhappy in and it's not like he'd be leaving a championship contender in doing so.

From what I've heard he was given 2 opportunities with the Cleveland trade, if he wants to play, they'll give him playing time, if he seeks a buyout, he'll be granted one. Rip didn't like either. He's just as much to blame as the Detroit FO handling the situation. There was another situation, which has caused problems. Don't remember what it actually was, but Tayshaun and Stuckey both acted against Kuester somehow and they handled it differently, Stuckey was forced to bench because of it, but while Tayshaun got away with it just because he had been Dumars pet boy during the Championship run.

Karma for ruining Iverson's career, enough said

Always hated Detroit from the rivalry with Chicago, but they are just a joke now

Karma for ruining Iverson's career, enough said

lol'z

Well, as the Pistons' ambassador of the forum, this situation is obviously beyond unprofessional. I don't think Kue is a HORRIBLE coach, but I do think he's over his head. With so many strong, veteran personalities on this team, I don't think it was really possible for them to ever mesh with him. It's a lose-lose situation to bring in a rookie head coach with these guys. Rip, Tay and Ben have all taken turns trying to run coaches out of town, which is why they are they way they are now. Dumars' is at fault from that point of view because he let Ben Wallace bitch and moan about Flip Saunders and he's let Rip go at Kue and Michael Curry.

It used to be Dumars' loyalty to his core that built the strange bond all the misfit Pistons had during their 2000s run, but once he made the Chauncey trade things fell apart in that loyalty department from the players point of view. As a realist, you look at trading Chauncey for Iverson's expiring as a necessary evil - the team was only going to fall into awkward, old mediocrity if you held onto the core four - but as a fan and probably player, you look at that trade as betrayal.

Obviously Rip went off the deep end after that, and for some reason Tayshaun Prince decided he was going to stop being the quiet guy and taking Rip's side on the issues.

The Philly 7 were just out of line. I'd be my apartment that Ben Wallace was legit tending to his oldest brother (who just passed Saturday), and really, I think Chris Wilcox just picked the absolute worst day to oversleep.

That leaves Stuckey, Daye, Rip, Tay and McGrady. Stuckey and Daye both have reason to dislike Kue (Stuckey's benching in the first month of the season and Daye's up-and-down playing time) but apparently last night those two were the only ones available to the media, where they apologized and manned up for missing most of the shoot-around. What do you get out of that? I don't know, but I give them the benefit of the doubt more than I do Rip, Tay and McGrady who didn't even speak to the media.

The fact that Rip, who is owed $22 million and is obviously hating life in Detroit, turned down a $16 million buy-out from Cleveland has shown me that this is far more personal grudge against the organization than anything. If he's going to verbally berate the coach, whine about not playing and blame everyone but himself, it looks like he wants to hang around and watch the entire organization burn to the ground.

Upcoming lock-out or not, the guys made quite a bit of cash in his career, if he really wanted to try to win another championship he would have taken the buy out and gone to Chicago.

I hate the whole thing. They need to get rid of everyone except Daye, Jerebko and Monroe. Even with that, you've got two small forwards who combined make a really solid starter and a starting power forward. If Dumars gets canned, he gets canned. At this point someone's gotta rebuild this from scratch. If when Gores comes in he wants to clean house completely, I won't really be against it. I think Dumars has gotten a raw deal this year considering how tied his hands have been trade-wise, but he's trying to re-mold the 2004 Pistons in a league where superstars are even more powerful than they were then.

At least picking Greg Monroe looks a helluva lot better than picking Cousins, can you imagine the drama if he was on this team?

At least picking Greg Monroe looks a helluva lot better than picking Cousins, can you imagine the drama if he was on this team?

That would be in a whole new level.

At least picking Greg Monroe looks a helluva lot better than picking Cousins, can you imagine the drama if he was on this team?

Haha. Yeah. Troublesome rookie sure would have caused some noise in the locker room against washed stars who are trying hard to prove themselves once again.

Bad Boy Pistons would strike again!