My relationship with LeBron has been a strange one. I started loving him. But then I started to get to know him more through interviews and babbling quotes. Then he dropped a deuce on us in the playoffs. Then he said a few more things that just made me realize how much college would have benefited him. Then there was "The Decision."

Just when I thought my level of hate for him couldn't get any more venomous, I realized something last night. He was making me cheer for The Chicago Bulls. THEE Chicago Bulls! There are three teams that any self-respecting Piston fan should NEVER cheer for; The Lakers, The Celtics and The Bulls. Now, here I am cheering for them.

I'm pretty disgusted with myself right now.

Not only am I cheering for them, but incidentally I am cheering against Juwan Howard too! I just can't handle this...what time is it? 8:30am? I need a drink...

There is a very big deal being made about Kuester not warning Rip Hamilton that he wouldn't play against Memphis. Is the coach really obligated to tell any player that he isn't going to play him? Especially a player, that for the time being, looks to be on his way out?

I just feel like this is more of Rip Hamilton's immature "coddle me" personality coming through. This is the kind of stuff that can destroy a team. The thing that encourages me -- you still hear guys like Austin Daye, Charlie V and Greg Monroe talk about playing hard and just "being ready" whether you get the call to play or not. I think on most young teams, with a veteran behaving the way Rip is (and Tay to a degree) you end up with a situation like the Portland "Jailblazers."

Do you think Kuester has daily meetings with Dajuan Summers to let him know he's not going to play night in and night out? I know, I know...Dajuan is not Rip.

I understand that star players do get different treatment. It would be a huge deal if Phil Jackson randomly decided to bench Kobe. But the point here is that Rip is not a star. He's not even our sixth man right now. So again, what obligation does Kuester have to tell Rip he wouldn't be playing? What if Kuester didn't make that decision until the second quarter of the game once he saw how everyone else was performing? Should he have approached him in front of the whole team and God himself while he's sitting on the bench and say "yeah...you know what Rip...go ahead and put your warm-ups back on, I'm gonna go with BG and Tracy instead."

I don't think Kuester has been perfect as a coach, but I really don't see how he's at fault for this. Questionable and inconsistent rotations, yes, benching an under-performing, toxic veteran...no.

"After registering a 'did not play-coaches decision' in Wednesday's 107-99 loss to the Grizzlies at the Palace, guard Rip Hamilton said he wasn't planning to talk to anybody -- coach John Kuester nor anyone else in the organization -- about what he needs to do to get back in the lineup."

- From the Free Press.

The biggest thing that continues to buzz me up is how he keeps searching for outside factors about why he's not playing. Like it's not about himself or the fact that his teammates are out playing him and deserve the time on the floor more.

I agree that it is a terrible situation for Rip. He wants to play and probably should be...somewhere. Just not here.

So I ask you DBB, am I wrong? Do I deserve fuzzy, violently cute red pandas...or do I have a point? I need validation!

Yes, our team has it. Mostly, I should say a few players have it. Unfortunately for our team, it's some of the key players. This quote from the Free Press from Tayshaun Prince tells me why he (and Rip) need to go.

**Edit: he didn't take ownership immediately before the quote, I have read quotes showing he has taken ownership leading up to this game. I'm trying to find them.** (Tayshaun) In response to John Kuester calling out his team for not taking initiative, and none of the veterans stepping up to accept responsibility for being a leader:

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From the Detroit News:

Michael Jordan, the Bobcats owner, took a lot of ribbing for trading Richard Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse eight years ago. There's a feeling Jordan was weary of dealing with Dumars again, so he dealt Chandler to Dallas for essentially nothing, which surprised more than a few front office officials around the league.

I never really thought of this, but maybe this is why Joe can't get anything done. Maybe his moves pre- 2004 were too good? Now everyone approaches him with caution. I think it's an interesting thing to consider.

I've always been a huge Joe D supporter, but it's getting hard to stay on this bandwagon when I look over at Milwaukee and see what John Hammond is doing over there. It's like they stole our blueprint and are running it to a tee. Which makes me think something has to be going on. Whether it really is what the paragraph above suggests, or if it's questioning whether or not Joe really was the mastermind behind the 2004 team, or if he was just running with the suggestions of the people around him?

Since 2004, more than just a few key people to the organization have left. Since 2004, we've been slowly declining. I vaguely remember Joe in a post 2004 interview say something like "...I'm only as good as the people around me..."

(Ed. note: Interesting theory -- it's like what happened to Billy Beane after Moneyball came out. Tweaked headline, etc, for the front page -- Matt)

I've been seeing this question a lot. It's actually starting to get on my nerves a little.

People throw this question out there like making a trade in the NBA is as easy as making a trade on NBA Live.

"Well the ESPN trade machine said it would work, so why didn't he do it?"

The reality is just because no trades happened last summer, or so far this year, doesn't mean Joe hasn't made any trade offers. Or that he's not considering something.

Case in point, David Lee last night. I hear people asking about him a lot amongst my friends and general people I cross from day-to-day. True, the rumors over the summer were that the Knicks were shopping him. I would have loved if Joe could have added him to our roster. But even though the Knicks said they would shop him, do you really think they would just give him away for nothing? He just dropped 30 and 10 on us, you don't let him go for peanuts.

On the flip side, I'm sure Joe isn't going to give away our whole team for him either. Which is probably what Donnie Walsh would have been asking for in a trade involving Lee. Remember, Walsh is not a slacker himself, he put together a 60 win team in Indiana.

Again, trades are hard to pull off, that's why they don't happen more often. They get even harder when you are talking about marquee type players. I'm sure Joe has a few ideas, that doesn't mean any of them will happen. There is still another team that  has to be on the same page.