http://truebluepistons.blogspot.com/200 ... tense.htmlMichael Curry’s message about playing hard every night hasn’t wavered since his introductory press conference in June. It remains to be seen how the Pistons respond to that message on a snowy December night in Milwaukee or through the dog days of February. But I’ll say this much: The first two days of training camp have been … ummm, intense. After another three-plus-hour session Wednesday morning ended with another hand-to-hand combat of a scrimmage, Arron Afflalo held his arms out, palms raised, and shook his head, looking at the welts and abrasions on his biceps and forearms. “I’ve got the most scratches of all-time,” he said, “in Pistons history.” (Somewhere, John “Crash” Mengelt is challenging that assertion.) The scratching and clawing between Rip Hamilton and Arron Afflalo is hardly the only battle within the battle of Curry’s first training camp. Kwame Brown took it into the paint, throwing the ball through the basket with his left hand while nearing throwing Cheikh Samb through with his right. Somebody hits the floor on every other possession. Every whistle brings a howl of protest. Breakdowns that lead to easy baskets – rare occurrences – draw immediate huddles to assess the cause.
But Hamilton’s perpetual feistiness and Afflalo’s off-the-charts competitiveness make their matchups perhaps the most compelling of camp. If you had no sense of basketball’s code or no understanding of Hamilton and Afflalo’s utter team-first attitude, you’d swear that after practice they’d be planning a shootout at 40 paces. Instead, they’re each other’s biggest supporters, throwbacks to a time before statistics, enormous money and an agent’s exhortations drove a wedge between individual and team goals. “I always tell him, I’m trying to mold him and teach him so when he gets out on the floor, it’s just him and an opponent,” Hamilton said after Wednesday’s morning session. “I don’t want him to look to the sidelines. So it’s important in practice to push him to the limit. I know if I push him to the limit, in games he won’t be looking to the sidelines, being lost.” “You’ve got to respect Rip just for the way he competes every day,” Afflalo said. “He doesn’t come in one day and doesn’t want to play. He’s going to be Rip Hamilton every day. That’s enough said. It makes me mentally tough. I feel I’m a mentally tough person already, but to compete against a guy like that who challenges you not only physically but mentally, that’s part of the game. There are a lot of physically gifted players in the league, but if you’re one of the more mentally tough, you can compete with them.” Somebody asked Afflalo if there was a boundary he maintains that he won’t cross in his ultracompetitive practice jousts with the three-time All-Star with whom he’ll job share the shooting guard position this season. “Not on this court, I don’t,” he said. “Rip is a player I watched growing up, he’s been an All-Star many times – I respect him. And I watch him when he’s not paying attention. But when we get on the court, it’s my time to shine and battle against him. For me, there’s no place to get better than playing against Chauncey, Rip and Stuckey and Tayshaun every day. I don’t think I’m going to get that competition (in games).”
Hamilton came into the league nine years ago as a top-10 pick off of UConn’s 1999 national champions, playing on a Washington Wizards team whose leading scorer, Mitch Richmond, manned his position. Nobody offered to play a mentoring role for him. “I just never wanted to be ordinary,” he said. “So I always pushed myself and motivated myself and I always said, when I get the opportunity to be a veteran, the next guy coming up, I’m going to prepare him. When I leave the floor, I don’t want to see a dropoff. And when I see a dropoff, I’m going to let you know it. That’s why I always tell Arron, regardless of who’s in the game, you’ve still got to play at a high, high intensity.” With Hamilton and Chauncey Billups both three-time All-Stars and Rodney Stuckey and Afflalo each capable of commanding more minutes this season, it’s more than likely that any combination of three of them will be on the floor at the same time this season – which means Hamilton is going to get minutes at small forward. Curry reiterated that Wednesday when he said Walter Herrmann wouldn’t get all the backup small forward minutes because “I envision times having Rip, Stuckey and Chauncey on the floor together.”Hamilton’s competitiveness rears its head when he considers that possibility, despite his 190-pound frame. “It’s not what you see,” he grinned, “it’s what’s inside. I’ve got the heart of a lion.” He recalled advice longtime NBA center Tree Rollins provided when Rollins, then a Washington assistant, talked to him as a rookie. “He always told me, ‘Rip, the more positions you learn, the more time you’ll be on the floor.’ I always told myself I can play the one, I can play the two, I can play the three.”That’s if he and Afflalo don’t maim each other during practices.
