Richard Hamilton and John Kuester don’t hate each other, but underlying problems remain a concern

(Video by Dave Pemberton of The Oakland Press)

Richard Hamilton, after the Pistons beat the Pacers yesterday, was asked whether he and John Kuester were on the same page now.

“Yessir,” Hamilton said. “All the way, 100.”

Let’s flash back to a Feb. 7 article by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:

Rip was asked: "Do you think it will ev­er get back to the way it was be­tween you two?"

Hamilton’s im­me­diate response was "nah."

Af­ter a short pause, he added: "I mean I don’t have a prob­lem with him, but it will nev­er get back to the way it was."

This sounds like two guys who figured out that the season is almost over, so they agreed to forgive and forget because they won’t have to deal with each other in a few weeks. In fact, Hamilton isn’t even hiding that.

“It was just one of them things where we were like, you know what, ‘This is what I want from you, Coach,’ ” Hamilton said. “ ‘This is what I want from you, Rip.’ Let’s go ahead and ride out for the rest of the season.”

Credit these two for reducing the misery the level of these last few weeks. I’m pretty surprised they’ve come this far.

But there are no signs the Pistons have solved two of their underlying problems. Their coach doesn’t communicate effectively with his players, and their highest-paid player doesn’t treat his coaches with respect.

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