Changing Of The Guard: How Richard Hamilton Can Save His Career, and The Pistons

I stayed up really late last night thinking about the Detroit Pistons.
I know that sounds weird and somewhat creepy, so let me explain.
The reason I was thinking so much was because I think I may have found a glimmer of hope.
Coach John Kuester has gotten a whole lot of crap this year, and yes he has given us much reason. At times it has seemed like he doesn’t know how to call a play, and his substitutions have been erratic, and somewhat illogical.
But, when I started thinking about it more, I realized that he might be smarter than we give him credit for. Consider what the man has to work with, and that point will start making a little bit more sense.
He has a team that is log jammed with very good players, but no great players. And, he has a team that is filled with very good players who all happen to be very similar.
How many guys do we have on this team that can play the three? It’s like the Pistons are a small forward factory! The fact that Joe Dumars is literally hamstrung by an impending ownership change doesn’t help the situation.
Last but not least, he has a team that has not been able to find a balance between new and old, and that is probably what is most indicative of the Pistons struggles this year.
You have Richard Hamilton and Ben Wallace who are desperately clinging to the threads of ‘04, and a new regime of younger players who are not able to grow and learn because they are stuck on the bench! The Pistons have not been able to find hope this season, because they have not been allowed to.
There’s no hope for your future if you can’t let go of your past.
John Kuester may have changed all of that though, and quite possibly altered the course of this franchise.
We had our first glimpse of the new starting lineup on Wednesday, and granted I know that it was against an equally bad Toronto team, but any time you notch a 115-93 victory on the road I think you should take it as a good thing.
Truth be told, I don’t care that the Pistons won, or even the fact that they blew the Raptors out. I care about how they won, and the vibe that seemed to develop with the changing of the starting lineup.
The Pistons started the game with Stuckey, Gordon, Prince, Villanueva, and Wallace.
I know that Gordon went 1-7 from the field and only came up with four points. I know that he looked rather uncomfortable and stiff, and actually somewhat jumpy. That’s not the part that matters though.
Ben Gordon is as streaky as they come. There will be nights like that when he’s not on, and I think its ok for us to live with that.
I guarantee you that there will be nights when he comes out and absolutely torches the nets though, and having that kind of ability in your starting line-up will really be beneficial. You gotta take the good with the bad.
What gave me hope for the Pistons actually had nothing to do with the starting line-up oddly enough.
When Kuester decided to make the change at the guard position I think we all looked at it wrong at first. We were happy that Hamilton was finally “punished” to go to the bench, and now we could watch Ben Gordon shine.
But, now that I’ve seen what it actually looks like in a game scenario, I think that we may have been completely wrong with our call to ship Rip out as fast as we can.
Hamilton dropped 35 points on the Raptors. An average night for Rip would be 15 to 20 points at the low end, and 25 or more on a good night, so even though we’ve seen him hit those numbers before, it’s a completely different scenario coming off the bench!
I don’t know about you, but I would gladly take 20 points a night coming from my bench in its totality, let alone from just one player.
Kuester worked Rip in perfectly, and whenever he sensed that the team was starting to lull, he made the switch from Gordon to Hamilton.
To sweeten the deal up just a little bit more, Kuester paired Hamilton up with Tracy McGrady, who has been starting to get his swagger back, and the combination of the two playing together seemed to cater to the strength of both players.
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McGrady dropped 17 points, and had seven assists in what was easily his best game as a Piston.
The two together combined for a staggering 52 points, and that combined with typical offensive performances from Rodney Stuckey, and Charlie Villanueva in the starting line up. We finally saw the type of fire power that we all knew the Pistons were capable of.
Now, isn’t this what team’s dream of when trying to build a championship roster!?
The role of the bench in basketball is often understated and undervalued, but good teams know that it’s the play of your bench that really separates you from other teams.
Here we are with two savvy veterans with 10 All-Star games combined between the two of them, and I dare say they both have plenty left in the tank.
McGrady started off slow, but lately we have started to see flashes of why he was picked for seven All-Star games, and two scoring titles.
I’m not saying he’s a superstar anymore, and at the beginning of the year I really questioned the signing, but I’m starting to come around to actually enjoying the fact that we have a player of his caliber coming off the bench.
He’s accepted that he is a role player, and actually seems to be a positive influence and leader on the team. And, don’t forget he really knows how to score!
So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is let’s see how this move plays out.
If Richard Hamilton is able to accept the switch the bench, and see how his presence on it greatly affects this team, than I think maybe we can start looking up a bit.
I’m not saying that this team can make the playoffs now, and I’m in no way saying that I don’t believe that there needs to be a few trades to really start making forward progress.
I’ve written many times about how I think that Hamilton needs to be the first to be traded, but now that I’ve seen what he can turn our bench into, I’m starting to have second thoughts.
This team is still a mess, and they still have a lot to do to turn themselves into a contending team again. They need a point guard, a center, and they need to continue developing these younger players.
When the time does come when we start seeing a team coming together though, the one thing that we will be looking for is a solid veteran bench.
We have two incredible pieces to that puzzle right now, and maybe Richard Hamilton can be an asset to this team in the future. Maybe i’m crazy.
Desperation brings change, and change brings results.
I’ve been thinking that a change of scenery was what both the Detroit Pistons and Richard Hamilton needed in order to progress, but maybe I was wrong.
Maybe the only change of scenery that was needed is the view Richard Hamilton will get watching the first 10 minutes of each half from the bench.
*Andrew Kulha is a contributing writer for The Majors Sports Network and the Bleacher Report. This article can also be found on the BleacherReport.com.