Posts tagged ‘Rodney Stuckey’

I know he’s practically untouchable but every GM has their price.

Who would you trade Rodney Stuckey for?

No NBA Player is off limits!!!

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Give us your impressions of Rodney Stuckey and the rest of the Pistons so far this season!!!

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Listen to our predictions on which players we think will represent the Detroit Pistons in the 2010 NBA All-Star game!!

Leadership is one of those words that can be difficult to nail down a concrete definition for. In terms of basketball, I believe a leader is the one who takes on the responsibility of successfully accomplishing the specific goal set by the team.

I think the question of leadership is the only difference between Rodney Stuckey and some of the NBA’s great young point guards like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Derrick Rose. All three are  proven leaders who’s play determines the outcome of games every night.

In only his rookie season, Derrick Rose was clearly the leader of the Chicago Bulls and the heart and soul of the team. So far, Stuckey hasn’t impacted his team quite as much as Rose has in Chicago, but he has shown signs of greatness.

In Stuckey’s defense, unlike the other guards previously mentioned, he hasn’t really had the same opportunity to be a leader. As a rookie, his job for Detroit was to be back-up to Chauncey Billups. The following season he had more opportunities but with the constant line-up changes, it still was some time before his role was clearly defined

Now, with the dawning of a new day in Detroit, is this the season for Rodney Stuckey or will another player step up and become the leader of the Detroit Pistons?

Join Pistonscast LIVE on blogtalkradio Monday, July 27^th at 6:00pm, when we discuss who the Detroit Pistons next number one guy will be.

By Deven Khrucell (aka Pimp Scwalla)

When the Detroit Pistons go on the clock June 25th, it’ll be anybody’s guess who Joe Dumars might draft at number 15 and even more of a mystery is what position. One thing’s for sure, with the current state of the Detroit Pistons, he had better choose carefully.

The Piston’s main concern right now is trying to pick up impact players from the free agent market or by trading for them. Most of the big name free agents are big men like; Bosh, Okur, Boozer, etc… Players like those won’t come cheap. In order to make this possible, there’s a good chance they will lose Rip Hamilton and/or Tayshaun Prince.

The draft pick that I see fitting best in this mix is Louisville Cardinal, Terrence Williams. Williams is a lock-down defender with plenty of explosiveness and is able to knock down three point shots when needed. I also like the fact that he is a four year guy who can guard both the two and the three.

While Williams won’t quickly replace Rip or Tay, drafting a guy like Williams could help soften the blow of losing one or two of Detroit’s cornerstone players. His versatility makes it easy to slide him into either the shooting guard or the small forward position. He also gives the Pistons some leverage when decide which players are going to be here in the future.

Many believe Rodney Stuckey is a better fit at shooting guard and the Piston’s should draft a point guard. That definitely makes sense, but let’s look at the whole picture. Drafting and working with another young point guard (at this point) will be too daunting and could be disastrous for an inexperienced Michael Curry. Besides that, we still don’t know for sure that Rodney’s late season woes were because of the position he plays or the fact that being a great NBA point guard can’t be achieved over night.

Either way we look at it, in order for Detroit to get better, it’s going to cost them at the shooting guard or small forward position–leaving a big hole in the line-up. Why not fill in that hole with someone that can play both - it just makes sense.

What do you think?

Via Freep’s 15th pick analysis:

One of the more interesting points from Joe Dumars’ season-ending news conference was the evaluation that Rodney Stuckey is not a true point guard.  

“Playing the point can take your aggression away because you’re worried about the other four guys,” the Pistons president of basketball operations said. “What this year confirmed is he’s a combo guard. We have to play him on the ball and off the ball.”

How Rodney Stuckey will impact the 2009 NBA Draft.

“Start your discussion!”

Got a question for Pistonscast.com? Send it to John W. Davis. And for Pistonscast news and updates follow John on Twitter.

Episode 110: The Combo Guard Episode!

I want to comment on that you guys say that Rodney doesn’t play defense. As many faults I see with Stuckey, I actually disagree here to some extent - outside of that period where he just couldn’t get anything going.

Look at some games at the start of the year such as the first time they lost to Atlanta. He was their offensive and defensive spark plug in those games. He was rebounding, blocking dribble penetration, and forcing his way to the rim.

Perhaps you guys are correct that he became complacent after scoring 40 - I personally think its an issue between him and the vets, but that’s for another time. But regardless of why, we both agree that something just was not clicking in the middle of the season.

However you look at the second half of the season around the time that Rip went out again, he was actually doing a good job of staying in front of his defender.

The issue was that without athletic bigs to step into the lane, whenever people would run the pick and roll you’d see players run in between Stuckey and Sheed (which really isn’t Stuckey’s fault since he’s fighting through a screen). And the biggest thing to me is that he’s much bigger than Tayshaun - I can’t see why Curry was too stupid to notice this - but whenever they put Stuckey on LeBron, James’ numbers were much lower than his average.

Don’t believe me, look at game 3 third period, the only time they put Stuckey on LeBron for the entire quarter with Kwame in for Rasheed. The Cavs were held to a total of 9 points for the quarter, LeBron with only 4 points through the first 10 minutes. The way they were able to do this was by having Stuckey prevent LeBron from getting into the lane until there was under 5 in the shot clock, which forced a bad shot and allowed Kwame to get his 3 blocks in the quarter.

And of course, as soon as something works, Curry has to change it up, putting Bynum in for Stuckey. I like Bynum, but that was just a bad match up to put him in their, and the score reflected it.

Also don’t forget that Mo Williams couldn’t get going until the 3rd or 4th quarters of most of the games, and ended up shooting below his season averages (especially the from 3 and the free throw line, given that he was one of the best in the regular season, the only reason - since he was not injured - is because he could not get into rhythm).

I personally think that Stuckey does have a lot of qualities that are overlooked because he was struggling a lot in the middle of the season. Look back at some of the playoff games and you’ll notice that he also did a much better job of setting people up than his assist numbers reflected, people missed a good number of wide open shots.

Give him a guy like Chris Bosh and a good 3 point shooter and you’ll see 10 assists nightly in 2 to 3 years.

I’m only bringing this up because I feel that people often grade Stuckey a bit too hard, most likely because of his flashes of brilliance earlier in the season as you guys pointed out. That and you guys both understand that I take a third party view when I comment on players instead of just raving about them.

And as for his struggles, I still feel that a good part of them were because of leadership discrepancies between him and the vets, but once again I’ll bring that up another time when the occasion calls for it (you can only cause so much madness in one sitting :p) .

Peace,

Ali H.

Got a question for Pistonscast.com? Send it to John W. Davis. And for Pistonscast news and updates follow John on Twitter.

by Mike Watson

Let’s just remember the good times! LOL

Seriously, where did the 40 point Rodney Stuckey go??????

Got a question for Pistonscast.com? Send it to John W. Davis. And for Pistonscast news and updates follow John on Twitter.

-Special thanks to Mike Watson for the great video!

D Wade shines as Miami pulls ahead in the standings.

by Eric Woodyard

The act of getting a pregame interview with Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade is like seeing Bishop Magic Don Juan sporting anything but green and gold (…it just doesn’t happen much!). I found this out when Wade and the Heat made their visit to the Palace of Auburn Hills to take on the struggling Detroit Pistons yesterday.

I came into the arena with high hopes! For what it’s worth, it was an ESPN/ABC nationally televised game, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and Wade’s a humble dude so I knew that I could be lucky enough to pull of this feat. Wrong! Not only was I unable to get an interview with him, I was unable to even see the MVP candidate until about 10 minutes before the tip off. Despite my failed attempt with the Flash, I was successful in my other efforts. The actual game was action-packed but most of the real action took place before and after the exhibition. Here’s what happened…

Pregame

Upon entering the arena, ESPN cameramen were everywhere and I spotted a few familiar faces even before visiting the team’s locker rooms. The first person that I encountered was NBA legend turned analyst, Mark Jackson, who was friendlier than most. The New Yorker was engaged in casual conversation with another person from the media when I briefly interrupted him for a short interview. After quizzing me about my background info and asking me if I knew SLAM Editor-In-Chief, Ben Osborne, he agreed to answer a few questions.

SLAM: How do you feel about being here today watching DWade take on the Detroit Pistons here in Motown?
Mark Jackson: Well it’s gonna be a lot of fun. You’re talking about getting the opportunity to watch arguably the best player in the game and a guy that has a legit chance to win MVP so it should be a very entertaining ball game.

SLAM: Your (analyst) style is pretty creative, you’ve got your own punch lines like “Mama there goes that man,” and things like that. How do you come up with those types of things?
Mark Jackson: Well it’s really New York talk. It’s something I grew up with playing basketball on the playgrounds of New York City, playing with family and friends, [and] no matter what I’m doing all day everyday, I’m a trash talker and I’m having fun. So it’s just an extension of me calling the game almost like I’m sitting on the couch with my family just having fun with it. So I’m trying to put my own spin on it.

SLAM: We have a guy here in Michigan by the name of Rodney Stuckey. A lot of people like to compare him to Dwyane Wade, what’s your take on that?
Mark Jackson: It’s really not fair to compare him to a guy that has ultimately won a championship and is a guy that is one of the top-three players in the world today. But Rodney Stuckey is a phenomenal young basketball player and you can see the similarities in both players and you can see how bright his future’s gonna be. Outstanding scorer, tremendous strength and a bright head on his shoulders.

SLAM: Who’s your MVP? Do you feel DWade should be considered for it despite his team’s record?
Mark Jackson: Well his team is in the Playoffs so he certainly should be considered but when you’re talking about the MVP, I think it’s a toss up between Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. It’s awfully tough to pick one of those guys. I think the rest of the season is going to tell who separates themselves.

From there it was off to the locker rooms. The Heat’s side was pretty dead as most of the players took part in shoot around. Mario Chalmers listened to music while Luther Head and Udonis Haslem had their eyes fixed on film of the opposition.

On the Pistons’ side, Rodney Stuckey munched on a pre-game meal after taking a few pre-game shots and signing autographs to the rowdy fans. Stuckey was cool, calm and collected as he too was watching film of his basketball idol Dwyane Wade while sitting at his locker. There was also an Allen Iverson sighting as he stretched in the training room looking as if he would take part in action.

After peeping the scene for a little while longer, I decided to step into the media room where breakfast food was being served. Without trying to be too much of a pest, I decided to approach former Bad Boy Rick Mahorn who was stern but fair.

“What’s up Mr. Mahorn?” I asked as he ate.

“If you mess with me while I’m trying to eat I’ll kill you,” Mahorn said smirking.

“Oh OK,” I said not knowing whether to take him serious or not.

“I’m for real! Naw but what can I help you with?” he said grinning looking up from his plate of pancakes, hash browns, and bacon.

“I work with SLAM, and I was wondering if I could get an interview?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you when I’m done eating.”

Instead of waiting around because he wasn’t nearly finished, I decided to camp out in the hallway to watch as the Pistons stormed their home court. Mahorn ran into me out there and said he’d get me after the game but I didn’t see him again. He wasn’t dodging me, but we were both very busy after the game and we didn’t cross paths.

In-Game

Logo, anyone?– Without A.I., Rip, and Sheed, Wade dominated as usual! 39 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks… including the game-winning swat on Stuckey that made me feel like a proud father as he did wonders for my fantasy league team.

– Stuckey held his own, though, as he chipped in 24 points, grabbed a board, and threw 3 dimes. The Pistons lead for most of the game but fell in the end, 96-101, moving three games behind Miami in the Eastern Conference standings.

– Rip was the only player from the injured trio to sit on the bench and support his team. A.I. and Sheed teased the fans as they came out during warm-ups and signed a few autographs before heading back into the locker room to watch the game.

– In the second quarter Rip even seemed amused as he and Kwame Brown watched himself on the scoreboard’s large screen in the “24 seconds with Rip” feature during a time out. When asked who his favorite actresses were he responded with “I have two, Halle Berry and Pam Grier. Only people from the old school know about Pam Grier… I have an old soul.”

Postgame

Following the game near the tunnel of the visitor’s locker room, I ran into another distinguished African-American actress who unfortunately didn’t top Rip’s list…Gabrielle Union. Caramel skin glowing, dimples glaring and looking as beautiful as ever, I wanted to spit a few words in her ear but I decided not to (…just kidding). I couldn’t say the same for the fans who bombarded hip-hop star, Flo Rida, before I reached Gabrielle Union. He seemed to enjoy the attention as he posed for pics and gave out his signature to just about anyone who asked.

This, minus the autographs and photos, was a lot like the media frenzy around Dwyane Wade in the visitor’s locker room as he sat at an unnamed locker and answered each question fired from reporters with grace and humility. Although I was unable to get a direct interview with the Flash, I can take credit as being the first person to show him a copy of his third appearance on the cover of the SLAM Magazine.

A video of this occurrence will be posted later this week on SLAMTV… Stay tuned!!

Peace,

Eric Woodyard

www.slamonline.com

(This article is comes to Pistonscast Courtesy Eric Woodyard and slamonline.com)

*For those who missed the Miami game on Sunday here is a local article recap.

———————————–

Pistons coach Michael Curry was ejected in the final seconds of Sunday’s loss to the Heat, and a few players commented on the officiating after the game.

Detroit was upset that a foul wasn’t called on Dwyane Wade as Rodney Stuckey drove to the basket on the team’s final possession.

“They were calling us for those same fouls all game long, riding Wade to the basket,” said Tayshaun Prince. “You can see why Coach Curry got thrown out the game because of that situation, and we felt what D-Wade did to Stuckey at the end of the game, they were calling us for those fouls on the other end over the course of the game.

“Obviously you know in late-game situations they are going to try to let us play, but I think you saw the inconsistency there when Stuck drove on that play and got rode all the way to the basket, and that was pretty much the game right there.”

Wade blocked Stuckey’s shot, but the Pistons felt as though there was significant contact.

“I guess the ref saw it different,” said Stuckey. “I thought I went to the basket aggressively while he had 10 of his fingers on me and they didn’t call the foul.

“He’s an All-Star so I guess you are going to get those calls.”

VIA DETROIT FREE PRESS

****Here an example of D Whistle Wade foul madness!