Comments on: In Pistons’ young players, John Kuester finds a group that will play hard for him

By: Detroit Pistons: Richard Hamilton's Mind Boggling Act | Sports Alchemist

Detroit Pistons: Richard Hamilton's Mind Boggling Act | Sports Alchemist — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:03:40 +0000

[...] In Pistons' young players, John Kuester finds a group that will … [...]

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:45:45 +0000

"Tayshaun and Rip never had a reputation of coach-killers prior to the incidents with Coach Kuester."

Fighting between Hamilton and Michael Curry is the reason Curry was fired. Ben Wallace, Hamilton and Billups not getting along with Rick Carlisle was a main reason he was fired after 100 wins in two years. Hamilton, Prince and Rasheed Wallace all expressed problems with Saunders.

The fact is, the Pistons core guys have always, always had issues with coaches, good coaches and bad coaches.

By: BIG MARV

BIG MARV — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:59:16 +0000

LET THE YOUNGSTERS PLAY The can run with any team in the NBA and it showed last night this league is a young leauge now and thats what we need let the movement begin!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:04:36 +0000

Q has seemed to be a pretty decent coach on the basketball end of things. His challenge has apparently been relating to the players and inspiring them to play for him. People have been blaming him for that, and it is at least partly his responsibility. But it is clear, as we’ve known for a long time, that the Pistons aren’t an easy group to coach in that sense. Just ask their last few coaches.

Hopefully Q has rounded a corner in his ability to connect with (some) players and can build on this as the season plays out.

By: xerowattbulb

xerowattbulb — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 12:23:16 +0000

@Mike
“Tayshaun and Rip never had a reputation of coach-killers prior to the incidents with Coach Kuester.”
Huh? Did someone sleep through the whole Coach Curry season? Or the Coach Saunders seasons? RIp and Prince haven’t been what I would call “coachable” since Larry Brown left, it just happens that they were still at their peaks and the overall team talent level allowed for winning even with player/coach rifts. In fact, part of the logic for bringing Kuester in was that he was a bridge to Larry Brown and would hopefully illicit respect from the veterans. So now, while everyone goes after Kuester, maybe we need to note that the players seem to be the common thread, not the coach (although I did think Mike Curry just wasn’t ready to be a head coach).
@ Dan
I agree that Daye’s involvement with the boycott was the most alarming, because of his perceived placement as a piece of the future puzzle (I hate that thinking, because we’ve kept some players around longer then needed because of that thought process). It’s worth posting one of Daye’s quotes in regards to his lateness to practice:
“I have no problem with Coach- he plays me a lot. I should have been on time, and I got punished. It was embarrassing for me to do that. There’s no excuse for a second year player to miss a buss because of a miscommunication. I don’t hold any grudge for sitting out last night. I apologized to Coach and told him it was the right decision.”

I think EVERY part of that is what he needed to say, and I hope that it’s how he really feels. Bottom line, I think that if you subtract Prince and Rip, use Ben Wallace as a 15 minute a game guy and then add a healthy Jonas Jerebko and a player from the upcoming draft, and this team is better then a lot of people excpect. A week ago I would have thought T-Mac was a positive part of the short term future. Now I’m not so sure.

By: Zeiram

Zeiram — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 11:54:00 +0000

I have to say this:

From everything I have heard and I everything I assume, Bens excuse was legit. I will move on with that in mind.

By: Tom Y.

Tom Y. — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 11:39:50 +0000

This may be a little bit off topic but I’m really enjoying Greg’s play and positive attitude lately. I remembered a post about how he ranks compared to John Wall and DMC, and I didn’t bother looking up Wall’s stats (apples to oranges IMO) but here are Greg’s stats for the last 5 games:

Min FG% Rebounds Assists Blocks Steals Fouls Turnovers PPG
34.4 .590 11 1.6 1 1.6 2.4 .6 16
Here are DMC’s numbers for the last 5 games:
29 .344 8.6 b 3.4 1 1.6 4.2 4.6 12
I have a feeling Monroe’s going to keep playing like this or even better for the rest of this season, and he’ll probably be the best rookie from his draft in 2011. Something for the future there at least…

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 09:01:46 +0000

@mike yeah i’m sure any normal person would have skived off work due to hatred against their boss, but normal people aren’t paid MILLIONS of dollars, nor do they have thousands of people watching them worldwide. these players are constantly stalked by the media and anything bad they do is a scratch on their reputation. they are also expected to be the ‘role models’ of society and skiving isn’t the way to go. and do you see other players in the league do the same? every other player in the league has a similar schedule and i’m sure there are one or two players who hate their coaches. but that is their job and they deal with it like professionals. if every player was to ‘pretend to be sick and skip work when they are mad at their boss’, the nba would not exist. so yeah it is bad

By: mike

mike — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:38:18 +0000

Wasn’t it just a few years ago that Ben Wallace, Tayshaun and Rip along with Chauncey were the consummate professionals in this league? Tayshaun and Rip never had a reputation of coach-killers prior to the incidents with Coach Kuester. Ben Wallace was known to be a hard-worker. Even though they played under the demanding Larry Brown, they were still very professional. Did all of a sudden they just all suddenly, collectively turned into the crazy brats like the media are describing them now? It’s not like they are JR Smith and Allen Iverson. It’s Tayshaun Prince!

Is it possible that it’s really the coach’s problem rather than the players? John Kuester is not Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan or even Avery Johnson, he’s John Kuester and there’s no record of him being a good coach. It’s not like the players never gave him a chance because he’s in his second year already and things just didn’t work out and left the players with no choice.

Even if that was in fact a protest, is that really that bad? a mutiny? come on, have you ever pretend to be sick and skip work when you are mad at your boss? The media tends to put too much blame on wealthy black athletes, especially when pitted against white coaches. [I am asian, not black]

By: qm22

qm22 — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 06:44:58 +0000

I feel the same way. I think the lineup from tonight is the best on multiple levels, including winning. I hope we get to see this group moving forward.