Yes Denny. Allow him to play for a contender. And with the new CBA looming, that may have something to do with it as well. Rip may not be the Rip of old, but he is better than bogans and brewer. Teams having to chase both korver and Hamilton off of screens would be fun to watch!
You have to give Dumars some credit as a human being as well. You might just as easily ask why he'd take Ben Wallace back after offering him a big deal only to see him jump to the Bulls. As far as Rip goes, I bet coming to the Bulls would be a huge move for him and his game would be a lot better with us than with Detroit. Just having Rose and Boozer out there to take the brunt of defenses would give him a lot less pressure than he sees now. He can still have great games - he's had 23 games of 10+ points, and 6 over 20, including a 35 point game in late December. I bet he can still play defense, too.
That would be a great addition if you could add Rip for nothing. Hes over the hill but with that shooting and scoring ability I think he'd do just fine as the 3rd/4th option getting easier shots off of Rose/Boozer. You know hes capable of playing good team defense too and hes been a blue chip on a championship team. Just the kind of veteran scoring threat you guys need.
No... Those situations are not similar at all. Rip is owed, at minimum, something like $25M. The Pistons, who are about to be sold, do not have an owner in the position to eat that much money to do the "good deed" of sending a player off to play with a rival team. This sort of thing happens if a player has an expiring deal where we're talking about a couple million. Not 25m. Signing up Ben Wallace to come play at the league min for you is improving your team. Giving a player $25m to go play elsewhere is just crazy talk.
I'm not sure of the specifics for buyouts but I thought that in many cases where the player wants out they'll take 90%(ish) instead of the full amount, thats a little bit of savings. Hes putting up 13 ppg on 40% shooting, I think they could get as good or better production from any number of other options who would all have more potential. Hes giving them minimal production for 12 mils a year and is locked in through 2013. The buyout could reduce the amount that is on the books for the Pistons as well. Typically when teams are up for sale they try to shed the crappy contracts. Rip would be damn hard to move but a buyout might make that ugly 12 mil/year figure look a little more palatable if it were lowered and paid over a longer period. If I understand Larry Coon's explanation correctly (I'm a little out of it now so I may not be), then whatever buyout they agree to can be distributed however they please but it would only remain on the books, and by that I mean counting against the Piston's salary cap, for the duration of the original contract. So if they decide to pay him a few mil a year over a much longer time, that annual payment would only count against their cap figure until 2013. Not saying its totally likely but it not crazy. Rip would surely rather be on a contender as opposed to looking like shit trying to be a top scorer on a crappy team thats going nowhere. Detroit may think it makes the team more attractive to a buyer if they can manipulate that contract to less yearly money over a longer period. At this point hes giving them nothing. You can easily get D-Leaguers to get you 13 ppg on 40% from the field. And if the feeling is mutual its in the realm of possibility for Rip to leave a few million behind to get out of Detroit. That would be under the assumption that since hes been in the league so long a minimum salary for him is probably around 2 million and he could probably stay in the league another season or two at least right so if he left some money behind he'd be making it up since his new team would be paying him something too. And he can choose to play for the Bulls, Heat, Celts, Lakers, Spurs, whoever the hell he wants.
I figure they can lose with him or lose without him. A buyout of $23M saves them $2M, and I bet he'd take less. It's not like the Bulls are in a position to overtake Detroit for a playoff spot. Sure, taking back Wallace made the team better, but it also shows there was no grudge to prevent it.
Teams don't buy out players with multiple years left for $25M on their deals. Teams buy out guys with expirings that are owed $3-4M, and agree to take a haircut off that.
If given the opportunity to add him, I'd probably do it. The tricky thing with all Pistons players is judging how much of their drop off is due to a genuine decline in their games, and how much is due to organizational failure. Things clearly aren't very cheery-O for Rip in motor city, so I'm inclined to think at least a little bit of his decline does not have to do with his ability/age. His PER is still at 15, which is better than any other SG we have, and he'd be the only player that was capable on offense and defense. Sign me up.
Hamilton can still score...if he takes enough shots. Haven't caught many Pistons games this season. How does he look on D?
He looks like a superstar on a bad team who's not motivated to put his body on the line in lost causes or even suit up for a lot of games. He doesn't have much to prove, unlike TMac. Detroit has a serious logjam at the G positions with Stuckey, TMac, Rip, Gordon, and Bynum. Rip is only taking minutes from the younger guys who have a chance to be the future of the team, which is why a buy out makes sense. A couple of links: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-anthonynuggets021511 http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2932433
He was bought out about 2/3rds of the way through the season, so they actually only paid him something like $7M. So buying out Rip would be three times as expensive and hamstring the team for years to come in a way that buying out Marburys expiring deal would not. The chances of this are as close to zero as they can get. A gm who does it should be fired on the spot.
Not to argue, but the S2 salary data says Rip is owed $12.5M this year and next, with a 3rd non-guaranteed season. Since we're already 2/3 through this season, a max buyout for Rip would be 1/3 of $12.5M plus $12.5M plus any buyout for the non-guaranteed season that is in his contract, no? I see only one advantage for the Pistons to keep him or not buy him out. If they intend to play him or use him as insurance in case their other guards get hurt and they need the depth. Otherwise, he's taking up a roster spot, and potentially a bad locker room presence if he's unhappy.
No. As it says in the note section, "Final year guaranteed for$9M." If they waive him before a certain date, they owe him $9M. If they keep him, they owe him $12.5M.
So what are you saying no about? He's been paid for 57 games this year. He's owed $12.5M next, and "any buyout for the non-guaranteed season" ($9M). Adds up to $3.8M + $12.5M + $9M or $25.3M. If he accepts a $25.2M buyout, Detroit saves $100K, and so on. And gains a roster spot.
