Chauncey Billups makes his annual return to Detroit tonight with Denver, and as could be expected, he’s baffled by what’s happened with Rip Hamilton. From the Denver Post:
"“I feel bad for him,” Billups said. “He’s going through a tough time. What’s going on is shocking. It’s pretty disrespectful for them, honestly. He’s kind of Pistons royalty. He helped win a championship, had some great years and now he’s not playing. It’s not like his skills have diminished. Whatever is going on, it’s crazy.”"
Now, I do disagree slightly with Billups in that Hamilton’s skills, at least if you look at his plummeting shooting percentage the last two years, have diminished some. But I do agree that skill-wise, he’s also not a player who should have eight straight DNP-CDs. We’ll see if he gets off the bench tonight.