Chicago Bulls shooting guard Rip Hamilton has missed the last two games with a groin injury but is “hopeful that he will be able to play on Wednesday night” against his former employer, the Detroit Pistons, according to ESPN Chicago.

“I’m feeling a little better,” he said Tuesday night, the site reports. “Hopefully it will feel a little bit better (Wednesday).”

Hamilton would really like to be back in action against Detroit, where he spent the last nine seasons before his contract was bought out this past offseason.

“It’s going to be fun,” Hamilton said, ESPN Chicago reports. “It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be emotional just from being a part of that organization for so long. The fans were always great to me so it’s going to be fun.”

The injury came Friday during the third quarter of the Bulls victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

In the four games he’s played for the Bulls this season, Hamilton has averaged 12 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

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If things go horribly awry and a deal can’t be made, players will continue heading off to play for overseas teams. With the largest population in the world, China is a particularly attractive market for players, except for the fact that the basketball league there won’t allow players to opt out of their CBL contracts and return to the NBA if and when things get rolling again the way that other foreign leagues will.

That hasn’t stopped free agents Wilson Chandler, Kenyon Martin, and J.R. Smith from signing with teams there and the folks in Guangdong are hoping the same is true for Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey.

ESPN has it that Stuckey held off on making a decision last week because it seemed like a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement could be made. It remains unclear if and win that will happen, but ESPN reports that Guangdong still has its offer on the table to the 25-year-old.

Stuckey, the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2008, averaged 15.5 points, 5.2 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game for the 30-52 Pistons last season.

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“AI has reached out to a few NBA trainers looking for some help to try and get him ready for a return to the NBA,” the site reports.

The 36-year-old guard has had a tumultuous couple of years. In April 2009, when he was with the Detroit Pistons, it was announced that he wouldn’t be playing for the team for the rest of the season after Iverson said he’d rather retire than sit on the bench. Then he joined the Memphis Grizzlies before the next season and left them in November after playing only three games. He rejoined the team where he had made his name known, the Philadelphia 76ers, a month later but only lasted till February 2010. At that point, he left the team indefinitely. Then he joined Besiktas in Turkey last fall and somehow that didn’t work out, either.

Now he’s looking to sign on somewhere again. Good luck, Allen.

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The site notes, however, that “China is a country of entrepreneurs now – and they want their NBA players.” The site has heard that Dwyane Wade was offered $2 million a month and Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki have both been offered contracts worth more than $1 million monthly. Nowitzki has been offered a $1.5 million per month deal, too, the site reports.

PBT points out that the pro teams in China tend to have high turnover for foreign players: “Some players don’t even last two weeks in the country after signing a contract, and it’s not unusual to see teams switch imports three times in a single season,” the site reports. “That begs the question, if a team were to release an active NBA player from his contract, how would that be different than releasing any other import?”

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Now he may get to return to Motor City. ESPN reports that Thomas is one of the candidates for the head-coaching position there left vacant by the dismissal of John Kuester.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Thomas is up against Mike Woodson, Kelvin Sampson and another former Pistons star, Bill Laimbeer.

Thomas, of course, is currently the coach of Florida International University, where he has compiled a record of 18-44. He also reportedly has the ear of New York Knicks owner James Dolan so it is unclear what would happen to that relationship if Thomas returned to an NBA job.

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Kuester did not help himself with s 57-107 record while coaching the Pistons and poor relationships with a number of players on the team, Wojnarowski points out.

But don’t worry about Kuester. Wojnarowski notes that he "is expected to join the staff of Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown. The pair worked together with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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The Detroit Free Press reports that the Detroit Pistons are interested in selecting Kentucky point guard Brandon Knight, who is projected to go in the top five.

Guess the Pistons weren’t totally happy with Rodney Stuckey’s time at point guard. The Free Press reports that Pistons president Joe Dumars has observed "that Rodney Stuckey is a combo guard and can play off the point."

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The Detroit Free Press reports that the Detroit Pistons are interested in selecting Kentucky point guard Brandon Knight, who is "projected to go in the top five."

Guess the Pistons weren’t totally happy with Rodney Stuckey’s time at point guard. The Free Press has it that Pistons president Joe Dumars has observed "that Rodney Stuckey is a combo guard and can play off the point."

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This past season, Stuckey averaged 15.5 points, 5.2 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game while the team finished 30-52, only seven games back from a playoff spot. The team selected Stuckey with the 15th pick of the draft’s first round back in 2007.

If the 25-year-old Stuckey agrees to the qualifying offer that the team is required to extend to him this summer, he would make about $3.9 million next year and could become a free agent next summer, MLive reports, but "it is much more likely that the Pistons will retain him with a lucrative multi-year deal, whether he first signs an offer sheet elsewhere or re-signs directly with the Pistons."

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FOXSports has it that the Rockets have already contacted former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson to let him know they’d like to talk to him. Woodson coached the Hawks for six seasons, compiling a record of 206-286. He left the team in 2010.

Meanwhile, ESPN reports that the Rockets are in "hot pursuit" of former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown, who compiled a record of 272-138 over five seasons there. The site notes, though, that the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers "will also be in play" for his services.

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