**Official McGrady/Pistons 2010 Regular Season Thread**

Head? He was a pansy and had nothing on Artest. RA had Artest, who was crazier than all the guys you mentioned. Artest always had his back in Sacramento and was happy to be in Houston.

RA loved Wafer and asked Morey to Wafer back. Wafer failed his physical due to problems with a back disc and back spasms. With Peja and Weber, Gerald was going to keep riding pine.

 

Detroit isn't very good team due to a combination of coaching and talent.
Kuester may be a bad coach, but there's a pattern here of DNP-CDs for Tracy.

Rick Adelman
Mike D'Antoni
now Kuester..

I actually thought Tracy found himself a team/city that he could be comfortable with.. oh well "it is what it is"

 

You have a mighty powerful imagination there... You're writing all this conjecture of yours about McGrady's relationships with every coach as if it's a well-known fact. Do you have a spy camera embedded in McGrady's face or something? How do you know all this?

McGrady may have some disciplinary problems, but I think his problems stem mostly from a sort of moodiness issue of his rather than him battling with his coaches.

 

I know T-mac has had problems at each of his spots but if Rip Hamilton orchestrated the whole Protest thing then why is he playing and T-mac is not?


Detroit trying to cover it up by saying there was no protest is lame considering T-mac is all of a sudden not playing.

 

You know, I was thinking the same thing...and came to the conclusion that there is a strong possibility, strictly by looking at the face of the situation as-is (DNPs...), that perhaps T-Mac orchestrated the whole thing (or played a much larger role than we were originally led to believe).

 

As much as I hate to think T-mac would orchestrate it that could be a possibility. So I'm left with

A)Like you said T-mac orchestrated this whole thing

or

B)Kuester knows that T-mac rep is not that great around the league so he is singling T-mac out because he knows not many will come to defend T-mac in terms of perception.

 

Exactly. I find (B) doubtful. I would have considered it because I initially couldnt figure out why Rip kept getting DNPs, but after recent reports about Rip routinely cussing him out in front of the team, I have little reason to believe that Kuester would be petty enough to single T-Mac out without any reason, especially considering how well T-Mac was playing before getting benched.

 

Yeah, I figured as much.

 

Interesting article on nba.com

http://www.nba.com/pistons/features/truebluepistons_110307.html



Pistons fans convinced they’d seen the last of Rip Hamilton should tread carefully with the assumption that Tracy McGrady is destined to ride out the season’s final 18 games in obscurity.
“It will not surprise me if he gets another opportunity pretty soon,” John Kuester said after Monday’s practice to a round of questions about why McGrady hasn’t played since scoring 16 points and dishing 12 assists in a Feb. 23 loss at Indiana.

McGrady was one of seven players who either didn’t attend or arrived late for the morning shootaround at Philadelphia two days later. McGrady had informed team officials prior to shootaround that he was not feeling well, citing a headache, but when he didn’t play that night against the 76ers – the Pistons played only the six players who showed up on time for shootaround – he told reporters afterward that he was available.

“I want to play,” he said Monday. “At the end of the day, I’m a competitor and I want to play and I feel I can help us win games. But it is what it is. I’m not going to lose any sleep. Just going to continue to work and whatever happens these remaining 18 games, happens.”

Kuester maintained that there was no non-basketball underlying reason for McGrady’s inactivity, just as he did when Rip Hamilton didn’t play in 12 straight games starting in mid-January.

“Tracy McGrady has helped himself this year,” Kuester said. “He’s worked hard and he’s going to be fine, but right now we are just overloaded at the guard position. We are trying our best to sort this situation out.”

Kuester has followed the code of NBA coaches with a stiff upper lip as he’s adjusted to injuries and extraneous forces in his two years, but he let his guard down ever so slightly on Monday.

“You go from one season last year, where you had so many injuries and needed bodies,” he said, “to all of a sudden we have too many bodies.”

It would be amusingly ironic, if it didn’t cut so close to the bone, to recall that maybe the best stretch of basketball the Pistons have played on Kuester’s watch came fairly early in his first season when a team playing without some or all of Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Tayshaun Prince and Will Bynum at various points won five straight games.

The Pistons treaded water waiting for the injured players to return, but when those returns coincided in late December 2009 the expected playoff push disintegrated into a losing skid that effectively ended their shot at the postseason. This year, with the added depth McGrady provided, the trend continued and “the situation,” as Kuester called it, has proven elusive in the sorting-out process.

Since McGrady has come out of the starting lineup, Rodney Stuckey, who moved to shooting guard when McGrady took over the point in mid-January, has been reinstalled at point guard. And Stuckey has averaged 20.8 points and eight assists in the four games since making the move.

“He’s played extremely well,” Kuester said. “He’s done a nice job of running the team. We just want him to continue to play hard. … Play hard every time you step on the court. He’s got great strength. He’s got great speed.”

McGrady said, “I think I’ve got some sort of idea” why he suddenly went from starter to non-participant but wouldn’t expand, though he indicated he didn’t believe it had anything to do with the Philadelphia shootaround incident.

Of the others who didn’t show up and subsequently didn’t play in that night’s game, Stuckey, Austin Daye and Chris Wilcox all started the following night; Tayshaun Prince returned to the starting lineup on Sunday, after recovering from the S-I joint soreness that had plagued him since the Feb. 23 Indiana game; Hamilton has since returned to the rotation as Ben Gordon’s backup at shooting guard, where the two are virtually splitting time; and Ben Wallace rejoined the Pistons on Monday after being away from the team following the death of a brother.

“I hope not,” McGrady said when asked about a possible connection to the shootaround no-show. “I hope I’m not singled out like that. I beg that it’s not that, because that wouldn’t be right at all.”

With McGrady’s one-year contract up at season’s end, he admitted his current plight could factor into a decision on whether to return.

“Of course,” he said. “I left my family back in Houston and came here to dedicate myself to get back healthy and help this team win and this is going on? Of course I’m going to think about it. I’ve already thought about it. I want to play. Very frustrating for me right now. I’m not going to lose my sanity, though. I’m going to stay professional, work hard and look forward to the off-season.”

Wallace said he’s not ready to jump back in with both feet after being away from the team for nine days to be with his family as their buried his older brother, the Rev. James McBride, 58, who died Feb. 26 of cancer.
“I’m going to take it real slow,” he said. “I’ve been off for a week and some change. I know I’m not ready to go out there and compete for 40 minutes at this level.”

Wallace and McBride had the same mother and Wallace looked up to McBride, 22 years his senior, as more than an older brother.

“That was my father figure,” he said. “My brother, my friend, my spiritual adviser, my basketball counselor. He was just a guy that put a basketball in my hands. It’s tough for me to go bury him and then come back and think about basketball knowing he was the one who got me started.

“I’ll always be emotionally affected by what went on this last month or so. That ain’t nothing I expect to get over anytime soon.”

 

Yeah I forgot about the Rip cursing out Kuester in front of the team thing. This whole situation is weird and unfortunate.

Except for he wasn't the only one caught on camera laughing.

 

AUBURN HILLS – Tracy McGrady has played very well at times this season.

But the chances that he will play for the Detroit Pistons next season seem to be going down with every game he sits on the bench.

McGrady, who has not played in the past five games, was asked following practice Monday whether his time on the bench would make it more difficult to want to stay with the Pistons after his contract expires at the end of the season.

“Oh, of course. Of course,” McGrady said. “I left my family back in Houston and I came here to dedicate myself and get back healthy and help this team win, and this is going on? Of course I'm going to think about it. I've already thought about it.

“I want to play. It's a very frustrating time for me right now.”

Pistons coach John Kuester repeated that it is a simple numbers game, that the Pistons have too many guards to play them all. He also said McGrady could find his way back to the court this season.

McGrady was asked whether anyone has said anything to him about why he isn't playing.
“Not really,” he said. “I think I've got some sort of idea what it is.”

McGrady was asked whether he was willing to share what he believed the reason is.
“No,” he said.

McGrady had 16 points and 12 rebounds on Feb. 23 in a 102-101 loss to Indiana. He has not played since. He sat out the Feb. 25 game against Philadelphia when Pistons coach John Kuester left all seven players who had missed the morning shootaround on the bench.

McGrady was not at The Palace the next day for a victory over Utah due to an illness and has sat out the past three games as a healthy scratch.

McGrady was asked whether he thought he was being punished for what happened in Philadelphia.

“I hope not,” McGrady said. “I hope I'm not singled out like that. I beg that it's not that, because that would not be right at all.”

Kuester said the incident in Philadelphia had nothing to do with McGrady's subsequent benching.

“No, it didn't,” Kuester said. “Tracy McGrady's been professional throughout this entire year.”

 

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2011/03/pistons_tracy_mcgrady_less_lik.html#incart_mce

 

Kuester is returning Tracy the favor and quitting on Tracy McGrady!

 

Kuester said the incident in Philadelphia had nothing to do with McGrady's subsequent benching.
“No, it didn't,” Kuester said. “Tracy McGrady's been professional throughout this entire year.”

 

Kuester isnt making one bit of sense about his reasoning for benching mcgrady. Ok so it has nothing to do with what happened in Philly. Ok well explain to me how does your starting guard for almost 2 months who ran the team goes str8 to the bench and not playing a single minute because now all of a sudden your overloaded with guards. If anything i dont think mcgrady would be the odd man out if that was the case. I dont wanna point the finger here but i think a guy named Ben gordon should have been targeted before mcgrady. R how about rip earning his minutes back. This wouldnt be so hard to swallow if mcgrady wasnt playing consistent basketball. but he was. 16 pts 5 rbs 12 ast in a close battle with the pacers and all of a sudden he is the odd man out???

 

Well, the Pistons did go 10-16 during the months of January and February. I'm not saying McGrady's play is at fault (I don't watch enough Detroit games), but you can't blame a coach to make rotation changes when the team is losing.

Obviously they're handing the starting PG spot back to Stuckey, which makes sense. You'd want to give playing time so that Stuckey can return to form, if only to raise his trade value, rather than bet on McGrady who probably won't be with the team after this season.

Actually their situation sounds similar to what's going on in Houston with Terrence Williams. Too many wings on the team, and not enough room for another player who needs to have the ball in his hands to be effective.

 

they were 15-28 the months before that

 

With tracy in the starting line up they were a 500 team, until kuester decided to stop playing his starters in the 4th.