By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Archive

Strong indications persist that the Pistons will go ahead with their expected hard push for Chicago Bulls free agent-to-be Ben Gordon starting July 1, even though Rip Hamilton's contract extension hasn't even kicked in yet.

So you also can expect to keep hearing Hamilton's name surfacing in trade proposals, in spite of all his history in Detroit, because the Pistons can't possibly find a way to make room for Gordon, Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey. And then you have to consider the rumblings on our radar about how Rip and Pistons coach Michael Curry are not exactly sharing the same worldview.

Then dump Curry. Rip's not a superstar, but Curry IS the worst Coach in the NBA. The value is clear, Rip is much more valuable to this franchise than Curry. If Curry wasn't JoeMar's boy, he would never Coach another minute in this League. Not to mention Gordon isn't nor will ever be as good as Rip.

I really hate this whole situation. Rip has done a lot for this franchise and deserves better treatment than becoming trade bait while we throw millions at a player who will, at the absolute best, be as good as Rip when he hits his prime. Gordon is too small, doesn't play good enough defense, and is far too inconsistent to think about bringing in and basically forcing a trade with Rip. I know Gordon's much younger and everything, but Rip is arguably the best conditioned player in the league, and his style of play and stamina will allow him to still be a top 10 shooting guard until his last year or two in the league.

Forget about MC vs Rip. We need inside help. The only way we are going to get it is to trade Rip or Tay. So even if MC and Rip were best friends a major trade is going to be needed. I hate Gordon but I guess Joe feels he is the best option to replace the scoring we are going to loose by trading Rip. Obviously Joe must have Rip trade lined up and we need to wait and see what that trade is before passing judgment. Personally I'm worried. I no longer trust Joe to build this team.

Yeah, because what we need are more SGs. What happens if nobody wants Rip. That would be funny. We would have Stuckey, Gordon, Rip, Afflalo, and Bynum at the SG and no PG's.

quote:

Originally posted by Pimp in the Box:
Yeah, because what we need are more SGs. What happens if nobody wants Rip. That would be funny. We would have Stuckey, Gordon, Rip, Afflalo, and Bynum at the SG and no PG's.

If this would happen, we would:
PG: Stuckey/Bynum
SG Gordon/Afflalo
SF Rip/Prince

It would be pretty horrible. However, if we could trade Prince, I don't mind Rip playing the SF. When we went small ball, it was more about having Prince at the PF than Rip at the 3. I think he would be fine there.

I don't get the Gordon thing. Is Joe just trying to get back at the Bulls for taking Big Ben? If there is one spot we are OK at it is SG and we have a giant void at the 4 and 5 spot. We need to add as many as 3 bigmen in free agency and we are thinking about spending most of out cash on Gordon???

Joe better have a Rip trade lined up for Bosh.

Motown --- I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, I've been saying as much for weeks now. Joe needs to forget about Gordon and focus on acquiring servicable bigs.