The Detroit Pistons kicked off the NBA free agency frenzy with two pretty big signings. Former Chicago Bulls guard Ben Gordon committed to a five year, $55 million deal, and former Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva agreed to a five year, $35 million deal.
Gordon and Villanueava are both nice players and they are both capable of starting in this league.
However, bringing Gordon in gives the Pistons two shooting guards who should be starters at this point in their careers while having Kwame Brown operating as the only center on the roster.
This means Rip has to go, and he has to bring back a starting center in return.
Hamilton is 31 and has a championship mentality, so most contending teams should be calling Joe Dumars up every moment just like most contenders, like Boston and San Antonio, are calling agent Bill Strickland about his client Rasheed Wallace.
Rip lead the Pistons in scoring last season with 18+ points a game and he could have easily eclipsed the 20 mark had he been starting over Allen Iverson for the whole year.
Hamilton may be the guy who puts a team over the hump, or he may be a guy who adds leadership to a lockeroom that may surprise people.
The Utah Jazz could use a scoring shooting guard to put with Deron Williams and they could offer Carlos Boozer to the Pistons. Getting rid of Boozer could give the Jazz a scorer and the ability to resign Paul Milsap, a scenario that was killed when Boozer decided to stay in town.
Tyson Chandler would also be a nice addition in the middle of the post. Hamilton for Chandler works financially and it would help out both sides with their biggest needs.
Putting a true center that can rebound well with a possible line-up of Stuckey, Hamilton, Prince and Villanueva, not forgetting rookie Austin Daye, former first round pick Aaron Afflalo, and break out scorer Will Bynum off the bench, this team could easily compete for a 5-8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
