Serving Richard “Rip” Hamil ton with his first-ever bench warrant as a Piston for Wednesday night’s loss to the Grizzlies was nothing personal, unreasonable, disrespectful or brainless as represented by various seemingly conscious bystanders, most notably Tayshaun Prince who branded the “decision” by coach John Kuester as “buffoonery.”
In fact, Hamilton’s 48-minute crouch was simply Pistons president Joe Dumars eliminating any chance of injury until the three-team trade involving Carmelo Anthony either goes down or is categorically called off.
Strongly sensing the increasingly promising probability the Nets and Nuggets are nearing an arrangement that fulfills their specific cravings and saves the Pistons $19 million over the next two seasons, Dumars is playing it unfailingly safe.
Vince Lombardi never could have operated within the confines of salary caps and luxury tax and revenue sharing, because professional sports long ago stopped being all about winning, in the standings, anyway.
It’s certainly not the business the 12-26 Pistons find themselves in these days. So, why not treat yourself to an early Valentine’s Day present — Hamilton will be 33 on Feb. 14 — when there’s an opportunity to move millions onto someone’s books, especially when the team is loaded with salary/talent (Ben Gordon) at that position?
That’s Dumars’ motive. It couldn’t be clearer. Yet many people got bent out of shape by Hamilton being ordered to fasten his seat belt — that won’t be off for the next three games (tonight at Toronto; home tomorrow vs. Sacramento; and home vs. Dallas on the 17th), by which time the MeloDrama is all but guaranteed to be over when the Nets conclude their west coast expedition against the Warriors.As evidenced by Hamilton’s nonchalant reaction to his inaction, obviously he’s fully aware of what’s up. Surely Dumars briefed him beforehand what to expect and why it’s happening. If not, I suspect Hamilton might have gotten clued in by Leon Rose, also Anthony’s agent as well as Chris Paul.
Think Rose might be doing some fancy orchestrating of teams and clients?
Think Anthony will wind up in New Jersey if Hamilton doesn’t?
Think Dumars might want to alert Prince as to what’s going on so he stops thinking it was Kuester’s (perceived dumb) idea to sit Hamilton?
“Tayshaun was informed,” said a Compton, Calif., confidant. “He was taking a shot at his coach.”
In that case, count on some of Hamilton’s savings to be passed on at some point (soon?) to Kuester in the form of a payoff.
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ESPN’s latest report claiming the Knicks are trying to use the Grizzlies as a means to entice the Nuggets to give them Anthony is hollow.
I presume author Chris Broussard was serious mentioning O.J. Mayo (what, nobody else?) as the potential hook. Did I miss something? I could have sworn Denver already has a rising free agent off guard in J.R. Smith.
Of course, should Memphis somehow re-convert Mayo into Kevin Love the Nets probably would quit triple teaming Anthony’s agent and send everyone to the boards to box out the Knicks for negotiating position to snare the NBA’s leading rebounder.
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Hedo Turkoglu had a career-high 17 assists and 8 percent body fat in Orlando’s recent win over Dallas.
I understand Steve Nash‘s absolute ball control made Turkoglu a seamless misfit in Phoenix.
I wish I understood why he didn’t do for Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani in Toronto what he’s doing for Dwight Howard and Co. in Orlando.
Was Hedo a hoople?
Or was coach Jay Triano at fault for failing to take advantage of the mismatches presented by Turkoglu’s adroit amalgamation of passing and shooting?
One way or the other, Magic general manager Otis Smith confesses he made a mistake letting Turkoglu go . . . and picking the Saints to repeat.
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Remember me? I wrote the Heat couldn’t compete with the elite without Mike Miller‘s smart bombs, rebounding and passing.
Since his return to active duty following a preseason right thumb injury, Miami has won nine of 11 before last night’s engagement in Denver. The fact Miller saw no daylight in four of the 11 and played just 53 minutes (19 in Game 2) in the other seven is beside the point.
Just as it is neither here nor there that Miller is 1-13 from the field, including 0-6 from off shore and has amassed a total of three points.
If you recall, I also swore the Heat couldn’t do without Udonis Haslem‘s rebounding, defense and clutch shooting. They immediately lost three of four after he hurt his foot and are a mere 21-2 since.
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Winners of one game in their last 20 or 30 games, the Cavaliers are decimated by defection, injuries and healthy players.
That’s the good news. The bad news is Ted Stepien is just a séance away.
Dan Gilbert now says the Cavaliers will win the first pick in the lottery before the Heat.
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Allen Iverson is returning stateside for surgery to have a lesion removed from his right leg.
“Hopefully he sees a practicing physician,” remarks column chondriac Richie Kalikow.
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Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni claims the (imitation) lizard outfit Walt Frazier wore to the Lakers game was not a distraction. That’s the wildest thing I’ve seen worn in the Staples Center since Donald Sterling had Elgin Baylor dressed in shackles.
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Blake Griffin‘s 24 points and 14 rebounds in the Clippers’ win over the Heat gives him 24 double-doubles. That puts him one behind Kevin Love (35 points and 11 in last night’s victory vs. the 0-19 on-the-road Wizards) on the court and ties him with Eddy Curry on the menu.
Jeff Van Gundy now says the Clippers should have won 82 games this year. This just in: Stan Van Gundy was fined 35G for being Jeff’s brother.