Detroit Pistons in shambles - Veteran players stage revolt
John Kuester certainly isn’t a popular leader among his players. The Detroit Pistons’ coach, who has been openly criticised by some of his players this season, faced yet another revolt on Friday when some of his key players including Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun
Prince, Richard Hamilton and Chris Wilcox did not show up to the morning shoot around.
The absence of these four players severely undermined the practice session, which was also skipped by Ben Wallace due to an ongoing family matter. Rodney Stuckey and Austin Daye also missed the bus, but they arrived eventually.
Kuester under whom, the franchise has lost its drive in the last two seasons, has been very keen to re-shuffle his line-up regularly in a bid to contend the play-off spot. All his attempts though, have proven futile so far. And the team has managed to win
only 21 out of 60 games this season. This complements the woeful tale of last season, when the franchise failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in nine years.
In the process of his shaking the roster, Kuester has earned the resentment of various players. Richard ‘Rip’ Hamilton is one prime example.
The 33-year mercurial guard, who once ruled the league in the early 2000’s and helped the Pistons’ win their first Championship title in 2003, has been literally reduced to the sidelines this season.
In a season, where the Pistons are struggling to even scratch a win, Hamilton has been left frustrated on the bench. In the last ten games alone, he has only been allowed an average playing time of 20 minutes by Coach John Kuester, and that's nowhere near
enough for a guy with his ability.
Hamilton, who has $20 million left in his contract over the next two seasons, was rumoured to be heading to New Jersey in a three-team trade with the Denver Nuggets. The trade would have landed Carmelo Anthony in New Jersey.
That deal fell however, much to the disappointment of Hamilton. His last hope before Thursday’s trade deadline was the late interest shown by the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs couldn’t pull off the trade though, due to time constraints.
As for Prince, McGrady and Wilcox, all of them have been miffed by Kuester’s juggling tactics. The fast falling reputation of the Pistons as the title contenders and the looming sale of the franchise by owner Karen Davidson have also added fuel to the fire.
Kuester however seems undeterred by his player’s antics. In a show of defiance before entering Friday’s match against the Philadelphia 76ers he said, “We'll go with the group that was here. We got a number of guys that have a bug, but these guys went through
shoot around 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 shoot around."
The Pistons played the match with only six players. DaJuan Summers, Charlie Villanueva, Greg Monroe, Ben Gordon and Will Bynum started while Jason Maxiell came off the bench.
The Pistons front office however tried to downplay the whole situation. Detroit Pistons Spokesman Cletus Lewis told the media that McGrady was out with a headache; Prince had the stomach flu, while Wilcox and Hamilton apparently missed the bus without a
reason.
A source later confirmed Prince’s and McGrady’s illnesses, adding that Wilcox had overslept.
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