The Detroit Pistons have coveted Glen Davis for years, according to an A. Sherrod Blakely report, and will likely be one of his most passionate free agent suitors. (CSNNE)

One of Boston’s biggest challengers for Davis will be Detroit, a team that has coveted Davis for a number of years.

And the Pistons may be willing to offer Davis the full mid-level exception which is worth $5 million in the yet-to-be-ratified new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Celtics have Davis’ Bird Rights which would allow them to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him.

Meanwhile, Danny Ainge called Davis almost as soon as NBA rules allowed him to. (Boston Herald)

“It’s my understanding that Danny called Glen early this morning and expressed his desire to have Glen back,” said John Hamilton, Davis’ representative.

Hamilton wouldn’t say much beyond that, but the sides have been talking for several days about what it will take to retain Big Baby.

I’m convinced the Celtics don’t want to sign Davis to a long-term extension (or maybe that’s just me hoping they maintain cap flexibility in the coming years). But if the market for Davis is $5 million per season, that might change things.

Davis — for all his flaws, and there are several — is a versatile big man who can play both power forward and center. In a league where Brendan Haywood makes $9 million a year and DeAndre Jordan could very well surpass that total this season, it’s a good deal to pay $5 million per year for a reasonably skilled offensive player who recently learned how to impact a game on both ends. I still (desperately) want the Celtics to prioritize the future ahead of the now (sorry Ray, Paul and Kevin), but $5 million per year — if indeed that’s Davis’ price tag — is undeniably enticing.

Lawrence Frank is not the leader in the clubhouse for the Detroit Pistons head coaching job, but he is close. The Celtics’ lilliputian assistant coach impressed the Detroit front office during the interview process and remains a finalist for the Detroit position. (ESPN)

NBA coaching sources say that the Pistons are inching closer to a decision, though.

Of the five known candidates for job, sources say that former Pistons assistant Mike Woodson is still the closest thing to a favorite, thanks largely to Woodson’s good working relationship with Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and the fact that Detroit would know exactly what it’s getting after Woodson’s work under Larry Brown during the Pistons’ 2004 title run.

Yet sources say that one reason Detroit’s search has dragged out so long is the strong impression that Lawrence Frank made on new Pistons owner Tom Gores and his advisers, among them former New York Knicks executive Dave Checketts.

Detroit’s choice, then, appears to be a tossup between the unattached Woodson and Frank, who remains part of Doc Rivers’ staff in Boston.

The other three known candidates to get interviews are Kelvin Sampson (about to leave Milwaukee to become Kevin McHale’s lead assistant in Houston), Pistons legend Bill Laimbeer (last seen on Rambis’ staff in Minnesota) and Checketts favorite Patrick Ewing (from Stan Van Gundy’s staff in Orlando). But sources have maintained throughout the process that Detroit’s preference is to hire a coach with previous head-coaching experience in the NBA after the recent unsuccessful stints for first-time head coaches Kuester and Michael Curry.

When Tom Thibodeau was still a coaching free agent, I knew he deserved a head job. I watched Boston’s defense every night, and that was enough to know Thibs would succeed elsewhere. With Frank, I’m not quite as confident. What did he do in Boston? He coached a defense with Thibodeau’s principles. He screamed his head off. He lathered on sun screen to keep from sun burn, even in the winter. What did he do when he was head coach in New Jersey? He won games with talent, lost games without it. Three seasons above .500, three seasons below .500 and one season at 41-41. He won his first 13 games in New Jersey and lost his final 16. Nothing to keep him from getting another job. But nothing that shouts, “This guy’s a perfect head coaching candidate!”, either.

Perhaps Frank will succeed elsewhere. He obviously has quite a reputation—hell, he has interviewed for almost every opening this summer. But I don’t have the same confidence in Frank that I did with Thibs. Frank just isn’t as sure of a home run—even if he’s born on my mother’s birthday, one hell of a day.

Romantic.

A few days ago, the Boston Globe reported that the prospect of adding beleaguered Detroit Piston Richard Hamilton would intrigue Danny Ainge. Today, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix discussed why Hamilton-to-Boston isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

There’s a rumor going around that the Celtics are interested in Pistons shooting guard Richard Hamilton, but Mannix downplayed it.

“That’s just a rumor,” he said. “The only way they acquire him is by buyout. Right now, the ownership situation in Detroit is in such flux that that buyout, it ain’t coming anytime soon. And I’d be really surprised if it came before March 1st.”

Mannix acknowledged that “Hamilton would be a great asset in Boston” and “something has to happen” because Hamilton and coach John Kuester are at odds. However, Mannix said, “I just don’t see him getting bought out right now. He’s owed $25 million over the next two years. If he’s not willing to take a significant pay cut from that — and I’m talking in the $16 [million], 17 million range — he’s just not going anywhere. [Not] as long as the ownership situation is so up in the air out here.”

On the court, it’s easy to see how Rip would fit in with the Celtics. He could play Ray Allen’s role of “run defenders around screens until they can’t keep up anymore,” whenever Allen was on the bench. He’s a veteran with championship mettle and playoff experience galore. He’s hit big shots, knows how to share the ball, and never worried himself with such petty things as statistics.

But he’s also under contract for $12.65 million in 2012-’13, which is why this situation gets dicey. (CBS Sports)

Heading into what some executives are beginning to fear will be a hard-cap system, few — if any — teams will be willing to take on $21.5 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons for a player who will turn 33 next month. The problem for Dumars is that a buyout will have to be an ownership decision, and the Pistons are in the midst of an ownership change. Going from saving $17 million in the deal that would’ve sent Hamilton to New Jersey to eating close to that amount in a buyout will be tough for any prospective owner to swallow.

Rip in Boston’s not happening, folks. Not unless a whole lot of things go right.

How do you treat All-Stars who aren’t All-Stars anymore? How do you allow players to age gracefully if they aren’t gracefully aging? What will happen when the Big Three get a little older?

At some point the Boston Celtics will have to decide how to treat their aging superstars. At some point Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett won’t still deserve 30-35 minutes per game. At some point there likely will be a clash between winning and treating the old stars with love.

Over in Detroit, home of Eminem and Casey Kasem, John Kuester and Joe Dumars are providing the blueprint for how NOT to treat a former star. Don’t give the star DNP-CD after DNP-CD. Don’t disrespect the star by refusing to tell him why he’s being benched. Don’t finally invite the star to come talk… by sending the security head to tell the star he’s free to come to your office. Don’t threaten to trade the star, then whiff on the trade, then continue treating the star like he’s cancer.

As most of you readers know, I coach a JV high school basketball team. None of my players helped my school win an NBA championship. None of my players made three All-Star games. Hell, most of my players can barely make passes that aren’t deflected and/or stolen by the other team. But when I take a JV player out of the starting lineup, I let him know. I tell him why we made the move, and I tell him what he needs to do to regain his spot. Why? Common courtesy. People deserve to know why they aren’t playing, and they deserve to hear it from their coach. Why else? Because telling my players what we need them to improve can only help matters. If a player knows what he’s doing wrong, he can change it.

It’s clear Richard Hamilton no longer fits into Detroit’s plans. For whatever reason — whether it be a bad attitude, Hamilton’s fading skills, Hamilton’s “he doesn’t deserve nearly that much money anymore” contract, Hamilton’s age or a combination of all the preceding factors — the Pistons have deaded Hamilton’s career. Barring a 180-degree turn, Hamilton has played his last game with Detroit. After eight-plus years of helping Detroit to a mini-Eastern Conference dynasty of sorts, Hamilton is now being treated with zero respect. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s teammates still have his back; they also say Hamilton did not cause headaches for Kuester.

The Pistons have started to win games, which provides evidence that Kuester could have made the right decision. But is losing the respect of an entire locker room worth going 5-3 in the last eight games? Do you think Rodney Stuckey sees the way Hamilton’s being treated and thinks, “Man, I definitely want to stay here in Detroit. It’s such a compassionate, classy organization.” No. He’s probably thinking, “Get me the fuck out of here. Fuck John Kuester and his never-ending string of bullshit. How they’ve treated Rip’s a crock of shit. Even if you’re going to bench him, be a man about it and let him know.”

Not that Rodney Stuckey staying or leaving will make or break the organization — he’s not that quality of player. But players won’t want to play for a coach who will fuck them over, who won’t show a single ounce of loyalty. Coaching basketball is definitely about X’s and O’s; but, and I’m not sure Kuester knows this yet, it’s also about managing personalities to foster a positive environment.

In high school, I had one coach who prepared for games better than any other high school coach around. He put together full scouting reports, watched more game film than Bill Belichick, and generally put together the best game plan he could. Our team was always prepared to play every game.

Unfortunately, the same coach had no idea how to deal with his players. One time, our star player TJ showed up to the bus right when the bus was supposed to leave. He pulled his car into the parking lot, and the bus was still there waiting to depart. TJ was a little late, sure, but it was only a minute or so. And he wasn’t a player who made a habit of being late, either. It was one of our final games, and he’d never been late before. Or even close to being late.

As TJ parked his car, my coach told the bus driver to leave.

“But coach,” my teammates and I all said. We pointed at TJ approaching the bus from his car, and we continued, ”TJ’s right there.”

“I know. Which means he’s late. He can get a ride to the game.”

“But the game’s 40 minutes away. And the bus is still here, and TJ’s right there. And TJ doesn’t have his own car, and his dad works and won’t be able to bring him all the way to the game. And you’re just being a fucking dickhead right now.”

Okay, so we didn’t call our coach a dickhead — he definitely was one. We left TJ, and TJ had to get a ride from my mom, and my mom had to leave for the game two hours before she planned to. My teammates and I all hated my coach, and we underachieved that year. He knew all about X’s and O’s, but had no idea how to treat his players the right way. He had no idea how to maximize our abilities, no idea how to bring out the best in us.

The next year, while I was playing college ball, the same coach repeatedly called one player a pussy. The team would do a charge drill, where players would take turns taking charges, and the dickhead coach would have the team’s strongest player continually run this “pussy” over. The “pussy” would stand there, and the strong kid — who would receive plenty of scholarship offers to play football in college — would run him over. The dickhead coach would sit there, laughing about it, and tell the football player to run the “pussy” over one more time.

This dickhead coach knew a lot about basketball. But his players sure hated him, and he had no clue how to inspire his team to want to play for him.

Another coach I had, an AAU coach, hardly ever raised his voice. He didn’t run any complicated sets, and we didn’t ever have any scouting reports. We didn’t have three hour practices, and he didn’t whip us into shape with suicide after suicide. But he treated us all with respect, and every player on that AAU team — one through twelve — would have taken a charge from Shaq if our coach told us to. We played harder than any team we played against, and it was mostly because we respected the hell out of my coach and couldn’t fathom letting him down.

Doc Rivers is a lot closer to the AAU coach than to the dickhead coach. He always treats his players with respect, and — one through twelve — the Celtics seem to respond to Rivers’ tactics. Put another way, Rivers is no Kuester. If you fall out of favor with Rivers, I imagine he’ll tell you.

At one Celtics game I covered, Von Wafer told Nate Robinson he had a meeting with Rivers after the game. Wafer, if I’m not mistaken, had received a DNP-CD, and I imagine Rivers scheduled the meeting to explain why. Maybe my imagination’s wrong. Maybe there was another reason Rivers scheduled the meeting. But either way, the point was this: In Boston, the communication lines stay open for players one through twelve.

Of course, it’s easier to tell Von Wafer why he received a DNP-CD than it is to tell an aging star he’s fallen out of favor. But I imagine Rivers would show his players the proper respect under any situation.

And if Rivers no longer coaches the Celtics when the Big Three start to show diminishing returns, and another coach is in charge when the Big Three’s playing time has to be reduced? Well, I only hope the coach handles the situation a lot better than Kuester. After all they’ve done for their franchises, aging stars deserve respect even in the twilights of their careers.

Stuck-ey. Get it?

One fer seven. That was Ray Allen’s shooting night before 24.5 seconds remained on the clock, at which time Allen ran off his teammates’ screens, sprinted — not ran — to the corner, and released a long two-point shot over his defender’s fingertips. Make it two fer eight, and give the Celtics an 84-82 lead.

After Kevin Garnett grabbed a defensive rebound, slammed the ball off his head a number of times, and made the second of two free throws (making the score 85-82),  the Detroit Pistons would have one more chance to tie the game. Glen Davis’ “hands straight up” defense forced a Ben Gordon miss, and one Davis free throw resulted in the game’s 86-82 final.

Ray may steal the headlines, but don’t forget about Shaq.

I expected a lot of things from Shaq this season. Mostly, I expected lazy pick-and-roll defense, miserable free throw shooting, and conditioning (or lack thereof) that would leave him playing at “Sheed speed.” What I didn’t expect, not ever, not in a million years, was that — on a night when the Celtics needed energy like Richard Hamilton needs a change of scenery — Shaq would become his team’s San Diego Chargers logo. In other words, their lightning bolt.

It wasn’t just the stats Shaq posted. It was the effort. He tumbled out of bounds to block a Rodney Stuckey shot. Valiantly contested many other shots, even pinning a would-have-been-easy T-Mac shot off the glass. He ripped rebounds away from the Pistons. He danced after making and-ones, and sprinted backcourt — a la Sammy Sosa sprinting to right field — after completing three-point plays. This was Shaq as I never expected to see him, Shaq as I couldn’t have possibly dreamed he would be.

For awhile, it felt like 2006 all over again. Paul Pierce, or nothing — and nobody — else.

That’s not even necessarily a good thing for Pierce. He forced a few shots on his way to the rim, resulting in shots blocked or missed. It’s hard to blame Pierce for his extra aggression; his team desperately needed some sort of boost, and he was the only one willing to step up. And he scored 22 points, too, while shooting an efficient 8-15 from the field. He was also, for much of tonight, the only Celtic who cared to show up.

The second unit tried. They tried to rally the Boston Celtics, to finally strike the TD Garden with a jolt of electricity. Semih Erden slammed the ball through the rim on two straight Celtics possessions, and Nate Robinson and Glen Davis followed with energizing buckets of their own.

But if you let an NBA team stay close, no matter how “15-26″ that team may be to enter the game, that team builds confidence. So the Pistons answered every strike the Celtics’ second unit sent their way.

But when Shaq strikes, he strikes hard, and the Pistons had no answer for that. On this night, Shaq’s teammates needed him to provide something he doesn’t always.

“The whole team was flat,” he said. “I just had to pick it up. I’m not really playing a lot of minutes. I’m not really tired. We haven’t been rebounding the ball that well. I just tried to get every loose ball and when I got back in the fourth quarter and we were down ten (note: actually eight), I just had to get everybody involved.”

“We were down ten and I just felt like I had to do something,” Shaq added. “Dive on the floor, knock people around — I think that helped a little bit.”

It sure did.

Psstt: John Kuester sucks.

Seven years ago, the Detroit Pistons epitomized what an NBA team — a real team — should play like. They played ‘D’, shared the rock, didn’t care who received the credit, and beat opponents with more talent and better go-to scorers. If you look now, the remnants of Detroit’s past are barely present. And for one player who still offers reminders of the past, Richard Hamilton, well, he can enjoy a nice long string of DNP-CDs.

It’s not like Hamilton’s washed up, either. He’s not as productive as he used to be, but he’s not as deteriorated as, say, Tracy McGrady. It’s funny I bring up McGrady, because his mummified remains actually started in Hamilton’s place last game. Will Bynum, DaJuan Summers and Austin Daye also saw time in the Piston’s last game. So no, Hamilton isn’t the same guy we remember from the 2004 title. But it’s not like a bunch of Michael Jordans are stealing his minutes.

What the Pistons have done to Hamilton is criminal. He helped Detroit win games for almost a decade, and even helped win a championship. He wore his face mask, and sprinted around screens, and made his teammates better by approaching the game the right way. He didn’t care whether he scored 20 points, so long as his team was winning. Hamilton, you see, was never the type of player who could win a championship all by himself. But neither were his teammates, and that was the ultimate beauty of it. And no matter how many times he failed to free himself from his opponent, Hamilton just kept journeying around screen… after screen… after screen… after screen.

Until John Kuester, or Joe Dumars, or some other Detroit exec, decided Hamilton’s time in Detroit was over. His playing time, at least. Now Hamilton collects a paycheck. He’s still on Detroit’s roster, and he still shows up to games. He sits there, I assume minding his own business, twiddling his thumbs, and dreaming of better days. All because somebody decided Hamilton wasn’t in the club’s future.

There are other factors in play here, of course.

There’s planning for the future, which is why Daye, Summers, Greg Monroe and Rodney Stuckey are assuming so many minutes. But if the future was really the only goal here, would T-Mac be in the starting lineup?

There are certain behavioral issues, and sources have told newspapers that Hamilton’s attitude became dour during this ugly season. But if Hamilton were the biggest and/or only problem, would his veteran teammates still back him rather than his coach?

“Man, I really don’t know what to make of it,” Ben Wallace told the Detroit News. “It’s tough because you’ve got a bona fide All-Star in this league. I don’t know. I guess coach has his reasons but I don’t see it. I just don’t see it.”

“I am mad. Anger as far as now,” Tayshaun Prince said. “When I look at it I see so many things he can help us with on the floor.”

The Pistons plan to trade Hamilton before the trading deadline, and now sit him every minute of every game. I understand why they would bench a player who will wear some other uniform in a few weeks. Of course I do.

But Richard Hamilton has given this Detroit Pistons organization so much during these past nine years. Doesn’t he deserve a better end?