ducks
11-09-2005, 08:21 AM
Hamilton thrives in new scheme
Saunders' system stresses more movement on offense, which creates easier baskets for guard.
By Chris McCosky / The Detroit News
Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
Richard Hamilton, who has gotten better looks at the basket this season, evades the Kings' Brad Miller.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Richard Hamilton, don't forget, has always been able to score. It didn't matter if he was playing pick-up ball in Coatesville, Pa., or executing the offensive systems of Jim Calhoun, Doug Collins, Rick Carlisle or Larry Brown, Hamilton always found a way to get his points.
It is safe to say, though, that those points didn't always come as easily as they have in his first three games in Flip Saunders' system.
"Oh yeah, the system definitely helps me a lot," Hamilton said, before scoring 21 points Tuesday night in the Pistons' 102-88 victory over the Sacramento Kings. "I am able to move more. I am able to cut more. I am able to get a lot more easy baskets."
Through three games, Hamilton, the Pistons leading scorer the last three seasons, was averaging 27 points and shooting 60 percent. Most of his points have come from inside 15 feet. He made 9 of 17 Tuesday, missing a couple of layups, and attempting his first three-point shot of the season.
"I am able to use different strengths that I am good at, like back-door cuts," Hamilton said. "It's just a lot of moving without the ball, and that's something that I have always done pretty well."
Saunders is loathe to take credit for a scoring burst from one of the game's most consistent scorers. But he will agree that Hamilton's skills-set make him a prototype wing player for his offense.
"Our system is conducive to an intelligent team that shares the ball," Saunders said. "And it's conducive to players who rely a lot on both player movement and ball movement. You put those three factors into it and it really gives Rip an opportunity."
But, he said, Hamilton's fast start has been the product of what amounts to a basketball version of the perfect storm. The Pistons had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league (75-42) and they were fifth in field goal percentage (.479).
"We have guards making really good decisions and moving the ball," Saunders said. "Our big guys set good screens and our big guys are underrated in terms of their ability to feed the ball. Especially Ben Wallace, he's a lot better feeder than I thought he was.
"Bottom line, these guys just know how to play with each other and look for each other."
Starting with Sacramento on Tuesday night, teams will stack their defenses against Hamilton in an attempt to at least slow him down, at least.
"What teams will probably do, I know it's what I would do, is probably try to take Rip inside on defense and post him up," Saunders said. "You want to make him have to work on defense. If you have a guy really going at you on one end, you have to make sure you go at him on the other end. You have to try to wear him down."
Hamilton isn't worried.
"People hate to guard a person who's always moving," he said. "It's tough (to load up on him) because I am moving and everybody else is moving. I don't care who you put on anybody. The way the rules have been changed (to stop clutching and grabbing), there isn't a whole lot teams can do as long as we're moving, cutting and sharing the ball."
Whistle stops
During shoot-around Tuesday, Rasheed Wallace talked about an old familiar pain in his game - early foul trouble. "I just have to fight through it," he said, after being in early foul trouble in two of the first three games. "It's early. I don't have my fleet-a-foot yet (laughter). It's coming. I ain't too worried about it." He had averaged just 27 minutes in the first three games. Some of it, he said, was being overly aggressive. Some of it was simply being out of position. "He's picking up a bad hand-check foul early, and that's something that sometimes may not get called, but it's been called on him," Saunders said. "He's going to have to learn to adjust that kind of thing, especially early in the game." A deeper bench, with Antonio McDyess and Darko Milicic filling in, has helped keep the Pistons afloat with Wallace on the bench. "It's not as stressful (with him out) and that helps in one way," Wallace said. "But from a personal standpoint, I don't like it too much because I do like to be out there on that court." He was on Tuesday, going foul-less. "It's about time," he said.
Feel is pain
Chauncey Billups knows the anguish his friend and New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury is going through. Marbury, like most of the Knicks players, is chafing and struggling trying to learn Larry Brown's ways and means. "After Larry took that job, Steph called me six times in two days, and he's still calling me," Billups said. "They are going through some tough times now, but he's still happy they've got a good coach. "It's just like how I was when LB first came here. You are hearing so much you just want to say, 'What am I supposed to do?' "I just told him, stay the course. Over time he will make y'all a much better team."
In the bonus
Check this out: The Pistons are presently second in the league in fastbreak scoring, averaging 17.3 break points a game. Denver leads with 18 per game. "It goes back to what we've said from day one," Saunders said. "If you are aggressive defensively, it doesn't have to stop at that end. Stay aggressive at both ends and try to keep teams back on their heels." ...Clippers guard Sam Cassell believes that his former teammate Latrell Sprewell could be wearing a Pistons uniform right now had he chose to. "I know for a fact he could have been with Flip if he wanted to in July," Cassell told reporters in Minnesota. That's not exactly true. Saunders said that Sprewell was one of at least 20 free agent players he and President Joe Dumars discussed over the summer (they wound up signing Maurice Evans and Dale Davis), but Sprewell was never offered a contract. "It never got to that point," Saunders said.
...Rookie Amir Johnson may not get into his first real NBA game any time soon, but he keeps wowing them in practice. The other day, he cleared the gym when he drove the middle of the floor, started his jump at the free throw line and soared all the way to the rim and dunked. "I still had time at the end to make another move if I wanted to," he said.
Saunders' system stresses more movement on offense, which creates easier baskets for guard.
By Chris McCosky / The Detroit News
Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
Richard Hamilton, who has gotten better looks at the basket this season, evades the Kings' Brad Miller.
Comment on this story
Send this story to a friend
Get Home Delivery
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Richard Hamilton, don't forget, has always been able to score. It didn't matter if he was playing pick-up ball in Coatesville, Pa., or executing the offensive systems of Jim Calhoun, Doug Collins, Rick Carlisle or Larry Brown, Hamilton always found a way to get his points.
It is safe to say, though, that those points didn't always come as easily as they have in his first three games in Flip Saunders' system.
"Oh yeah, the system definitely helps me a lot," Hamilton said, before scoring 21 points Tuesday night in the Pistons' 102-88 victory over the Sacramento Kings. "I am able to move more. I am able to cut more. I am able to get a lot more easy baskets."
Through three games, Hamilton, the Pistons leading scorer the last three seasons, was averaging 27 points and shooting 60 percent. Most of his points have come from inside 15 feet. He made 9 of 17 Tuesday, missing a couple of layups, and attempting his first three-point shot of the season.
"I am able to use different strengths that I am good at, like back-door cuts," Hamilton said. "It's just a lot of moving without the ball, and that's something that I have always done pretty well."
Saunders is loathe to take credit for a scoring burst from one of the game's most consistent scorers. But he will agree that Hamilton's skills-set make him a prototype wing player for his offense.
"Our system is conducive to an intelligent team that shares the ball," Saunders said. "And it's conducive to players who rely a lot on both player movement and ball movement. You put those three factors into it and it really gives Rip an opportunity."
But, he said, Hamilton's fast start has been the product of what amounts to a basketball version of the perfect storm. The Pistons had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league (75-42) and they were fifth in field goal percentage (.479).
"We have guards making really good decisions and moving the ball," Saunders said. "Our big guys set good screens and our big guys are underrated in terms of their ability to feed the ball. Especially Ben Wallace, he's a lot better feeder than I thought he was.
"Bottom line, these guys just know how to play with each other and look for each other."
Starting with Sacramento on Tuesday night, teams will stack their defenses against Hamilton in an attempt to at least slow him down, at least.
"What teams will probably do, I know it's what I would do, is probably try to take Rip inside on defense and post him up," Saunders said. "You want to make him have to work on defense. If you have a guy really going at you on one end, you have to make sure you go at him on the other end. You have to try to wear him down."
Hamilton isn't worried.
"People hate to guard a person who's always moving," he said. "It's tough (to load up on him) because I am moving and everybody else is moving. I don't care who you put on anybody. The way the rules have been changed (to stop clutching and grabbing), there isn't a whole lot teams can do as long as we're moving, cutting and sharing the ball."
Whistle stops
During shoot-around Tuesday, Rasheed Wallace talked about an old familiar pain in his game - early foul trouble. "I just have to fight through it," he said, after being in early foul trouble in two of the first three games. "It's early. I don't have my fleet-a-foot yet (laughter). It's coming. I ain't too worried about it." He had averaged just 27 minutes in the first three games. Some of it, he said, was being overly aggressive. Some of it was simply being out of position. "He's picking up a bad hand-check foul early, and that's something that sometimes may not get called, but it's been called on him," Saunders said. "He's going to have to learn to adjust that kind of thing, especially early in the game." A deeper bench, with Antonio McDyess and Darko Milicic filling in, has helped keep the Pistons afloat with Wallace on the bench. "It's not as stressful (with him out) and that helps in one way," Wallace said. "But from a personal standpoint, I don't like it too much because I do like to be out there on that court." He was on Tuesday, going foul-less. "It's about time," he said.
Feel is pain
Chauncey Billups knows the anguish his friend and New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury is going through. Marbury, like most of the Knicks players, is chafing and struggling trying to learn Larry Brown's ways and means. "After Larry took that job, Steph called me six times in two days, and he's still calling me," Billups said. "They are going through some tough times now, but he's still happy they've got a good coach. "It's just like how I was when LB first came here. You are hearing so much you just want to say, 'What am I supposed to do?' "I just told him, stay the course. Over time he will make y'all a much better team."
In the bonus
Check this out: The Pistons are presently second in the league in fastbreak scoring, averaging 17.3 break points a game. Denver leads with 18 per game. "It goes back to what we've said from day one," Saunders said. "If you are aggressive defensively, it doesn't have to stop at that end. Stay aggressive at both ends and try to keep teams back on their heels." ...Clippers guard Sam Cassell believes that his former teammate Latrell Sprewell could be wearing a Pistons uniform right now had he chose to. "I know for a fact he could have been with Flip if he wanted to in July," Cassell told reporters in Minnesota. That's not exactly true. Saunders said that Sprewell was one of at least 20 free agent players he and President Joe Dumars discussed over the summer (they wound up signing Maurice Evans and Dale Davis), but Sprewell was never offered a contract. "It never got to that point," Saunders said.
...Rookie Amir Johnson may not get into his first real NBA game any time soon, but he keeps wowing them in practice. The other day, he cleared the gym when he drove the middle of the floor, started his jump at the free throw line and soared all the way to the rim and dunked. "I still had time at the end to make another move if I wanted to," he said.