Rip Hamilton Coming Off the Bench

Not sure how I feel about that change for the Pistons starting line up. Clearly the small ball line up they had been using of starting 3 guards was not going to win on most nights. It was a gimmick that made us extremely small and got us killed ont he boards. It appears, at least for now that Amir Johnson has replaced Rip in the starting line up.

If it were up to me I probably would have put AI on the bench instead of Rip, but we'll see how it goes. I think Rip fits better with Stuckey than he does with AI, but one thing I will say is that Rip has lost his game. He is not playing to his strengths anymore. He is not running marathons anymore like he is hopped up on Ephedrasil hardcore and seems to think that he is a great one on one player now. HE is not.

I wonder how he will adjust to this exactly. I get the impression that he has the mindset he is now a superstar in the NBA. A "go to" guy. He is the captain, but is neither a superstar, nor a go to guy. He is a guy that can score, and a very good player, but he is not the guy you go to so he can create his own shot. He's a mid-range shooter (may be the best in the league) that comes off screens, or spots up for the occasional 3. A future Reggie Miller if his range is more consistent behind the arc.

Rip has not adjusted well to AI coming to this team. He is missing Billups quite badly. At least he seems to be making an effort to miss Billups by not adjusting to the new game this team plays. He is becoming Sheed in a sense. What i mean by that is that he seems to go out of his way to play against his strengths. Sheed is a post up nightmare for anyone, but he would rather jack 3s. Rip is a guy that will kill you if you have to chase him around all night, but now he would rather try to prove he is an iso player.

You can blame Coach Curry as much as you want, and I do for a lot of things, but these guys are playing like idiots. Away from strengths, and selfishly it seems.