Pretty surprising news out of Detroit on Tuesday in that Pistons coach Michael Curry said that second-leading scorer Richard Hamilton will come off the bench for the foreseeable future.
Detroit has been scuffling, having ended a five-game losing streak by winning at Memphis on Monday.
Curry said that power forward Amir Johnson will replace Rip in the starting lineup most nights but that center Kwame Brown will start against especially big teams. Either switch would give the Pistons a more traditional lineup of two guards and three bigger players, as opposed to the three-guard lineup they’ve been using since Hamilton returned from an injury this month. Curry said the seven-game winning streak with Hamilton out of the lineup convinced him the team is better with two “bigs” on the floor.
This lineup will take effect Wednesday night against Toronto – bet on the game at WagerWeb.com.
“I feel we are better defensively and rebounding” with three forwards, Curry said. “We have struggled sometimes being able to score at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters. We think, by featuring Rip during those times, we can (change) that.”
Curry said Hamilton still will average about 30 minutes of playing time and would start the second and fourth quarters. The new starting lineup will be Rodney Stuckey, Allen Iverson, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Johnson. Defensively it makes sense, as Prince was giving away about 20 or 30 pounds a night, and playing him at power forward was taking minutes from Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell.
Hamilton, who has been a starter in his entire Detroit career, said recently he was OK with the move, while acknowledging he would like to keep starting.
“Whatever makes us win, I’m going to go ahead and do it,” said Hamilton. “(But) You can ask anybody who plays the game; nobody wants to come off the bench. … We just want to win, bottom line. We want to win games. Guys are coming out, trying to figure out a way to do everything possible to help the team win. That’s the most important thing right now — just try to win games.”
There were discussions about sending Iverson to a sixth-man role, but no doubt Hamilton won’t rock the boat like an unhappy Iverson might have. And Rip had been coming off the bench since returning from injury. But look for those trade rumors to heat up again.
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