What the heck is going on with D E T R O I T basketball?

[Dr. Jack]

How far has this team fallen?

Who's to blame? Players or Coach?

Can't really fire coach here even though he obviously lost team. What do you do? Would love to hear from some Detroit guys

[revnecro1273]

reflection of the city

[Classic Rock]

reflection of the NBA is more like it. Hate it but this league is going to self destruct.Don't care what anybody says the SKY is falling on this league

[T100]

John Kuester hasn't made any friends in the Motor City this season. And if he's not careful, Eminem is going to send a member of his posse after him.

Four guys that are supposed to be on Kuester's side, in theory, turned their backs on him today. The Detroit News is reporting that Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton and Chris Wilcox skipped practice Friday morning in protest of the head coach.

There were three more members of the team not in attendance. Ben Wallace was absent, but he’s been dealing with a personal situation and might have been excused. Austin Daye and Rodney Stuckey arrived at Wells Fargo Center as the shootaround session ended, citing they missed the team bus.

More excuses followed. A team spokesman said McGrady missed practice because of a headache and Prince a stomach virus. Wilcox apparently overslept.

There’s been a constant rift between Kuester and the veterans the majority of the season. And most of it has stemmed from the benching of Hamilton. Prince and Kuester have had heated exchanges on and off the court and Ben Gordon admitted in late November the team wasn't playing hard.

Only Will Bynum, Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell, Greg Monroe and DaJuan Summers participated fully in Friday’s practice.

Kuester wouldn’t field questions about the rumored protest, only saying the team would move forward with the players that were available.

"We have some things…some excuses, not excuses, absences because of headaches and stuff like that," Kuester told the Detroit News. "We'll go with this group right now."

Andrew Patterson of the Las Vegas Sports Consultants said they opened the game between the Pistons and Sixers at 9. When the news broke about Detroit possibly playing with a depleted lineup, most offshore books pulled the game off the board. It resurfaced a half hour later at 10.5 or 11.

Jimmy Vaccaro, Lucky’s race and sportsbook director, said they didn’t take line off board but simply stayed on top of the news and adjusted before sharps could get to the lower number. Vaccaro did mention they had received more action than normal on a matchup of this caliber, and most of it was coming in on Philadelphia.

But he didn’t see a need to overreact to the situation, saying it was only a matter of time before this saga came to a head. He also pointed out that in Vegas particularly, they don’t have a lot of people come in and bet on or against the Pistons.

“They’re not a team people glob to and bet every day like the Lakers, Heat or now the Knicks,” Vaccaro said. “If we didn’t put the Pistons up from now until the end of the season, no one would complain.”

Vaccaro was in a jovial Friday mood and is obviously exaggerating a bit, because there will be an immediate oddsmaking impact after Detroit’s game tonight.

Before the news broke, the LVSC had sent out a pick ‘em for Saturday’s game between the Jazz and Pistons. If key players don’t play Friday, or see limited minutes, Patterson anticipated Utah would be a 2- or 3-point road favorite.

And if those same players are in the doghouse Saturday, how do you approach handicapping that game? Reserves that aren’t accustomed to logging heavy minutes might wear down during the second leg of a back-to-back. Detroit went 0-9 SU and 3-6 ATS in its first nine back-to-back scenarios this season but is 4-2 SU and 4-2 ATS since.

The firing of Kuester doesn’t seem imminent because the franchise could be sold to Tom Gores in the coming weeks. Bettors should avoid the Pistons until this soap opera comes to a close.