Rip Hamilton has seen his role dramatically change in Detroit. He was once the guy run off multiple screens every possession to get him a mid-range jumper. The heart of the offense. Now he most often a decoy who plays fewer minutes every month it seems. Now Ben Gordon is starting and Hamilton is coming off the bench.
All that is not sitting well with Hamilton. Which may have something to do with the “upset stomach” that caused him to miss a Pistons practice Saturday and game Sunday.
All of which has led some Pistons to think Hamilton has quit on the team, the Detroit News reports.“He quit on us,” one team source said. Another team source said Hamilton is acting out of emotion and should adjust.
“If I need to have a long talk with him, I will,” Dumars said Monday on WDFN. “I’ll see how Rip is doing tomorrow when he gets in here. Rip’s been good for me.”
But after a shoot around on Tuesday Hamilton said he is fully engaged with the team and is hurt by the allegations, according to tweets from Chris Iott, Pistons beat writer for MLive.com.
Dumars has been shopping Hamilton around for a while but a combination of things has slowed down offers coming in. One is Hamilton’s play — the last two seasons his shooting percentage has fallen down to just above 40 percent and he is just not the same scoring threat. Combine that with a big contract — Hamilton is getting paid $12.5 million this season and next — and the uncertainty of a Pistons team that is up for sale and other teams are not jumping in to get him.
That may change — next season he would be an expiring contract (his 2012-13 year is not guaranteed) — but it may be this summer before teams jump in. With a new Collective Bargaining Agreement looming some teams are more hesitant to take on big deals until they see the details.
The bottom line is Hamilton is not likely going anywhere soon. So if he has quit on the team it’s going to be a long next four months.