Comments on: Yahoo!’s Kelly Dwyer: Rodney Stuckey is the 29th best (or is it worst?) point guard in the NBA

By: C-Foe

C-Foe — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:59:18 +0000

@Laser: 1) Agreed, all of those teams did have at least one superstar (some would debate whether Rasheed was a superstar before he joined Detroit). However, the superstar wasn’t the starting PG (I agree with your point about Chauncey being an offensive leader as opposed to a superstar at that time). The common thread was that in recent years the team that ultimately won the championship had great production from either the PF or the C spot.
-> LA – Shaq, San Antonio – Duncan, Detroit – Rasheed, Miami – Shaq, Boston – Garnett, LA – Gasol.
Depending on how you view Rasheed and Gasol, you could argue that all of those teams had a superstar at the PF or C spot.
So to make a long story short, my post was to show that having a statistically highly rated/ranked PG does help to win games and get a team into the playoffs, but it is not a necessity for winning a championship.

By: Laser

Laser — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:05:04 +0000

@c-foe: 1) all of those teams you listed had a superstar or more (with the notable exception of the pistons. but they had chauncey and ben who were star-like offensive and defensive leaders, respectively). 2) it’s not ironic that wade led everyone in assists; the ball was in his hands about 90% of the time. none of the teams on that list won the championship with less. it would have been surprising if anyone collected more assists than wade.

@jordan: i’m just going ahead and assuming you’re just adam. suffice it to say your bogus, unsupported opinion is of use to no one. nuetes just ate you for breakfast and sh*t you out.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:38:03 +0000

Stuckey doesn need to work on consistency on his game

By: nuetes

nuetes — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:59:03 +0000

jordan – in what area of the game is stuckey improving exactly? not his shooting (lower % in 10 than 09), not his passing (lowers assists and assists/to in 10 than 09), not his wins score/produced (lower in 10 than 09), and not his defense (lower d-rating in 10 than 09), so where is the improvement? he had a lower assist % yet a higher usage rate in 10 than 09. I don’t see improvement in any area of his game yet you see improvement in almost all of them?

By: Jordan

Jordan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:26:26 +0000

Rodney Stuckey has as much potential as any top five lottery pick. He is improving in almost every category of the game. I believe that in the future he will be in the same category as Derek Rose, Monta Ellis, and other great all around scoring PG’s. Just give him a chance with a healthy team.

By: C-Foe

C-Foe — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:34:58 +0000

Okay, I had to get in on this discussion because it’s a good one. Everyone is correct, Rodney Stuckey is not a “pure” PG. I believe Joe Dumars knew that when he drafted him. Dumars made several comments during that time that he saw the NBA game changing. He said that “execution” can only get you so much and when defenses take away the first and second option, you have to have someone who can create his own shot. “Execution” is what won the Pistons the 2003-2004 championship. Dumars thought the league was rewarding aggressive scorers, meaning players who can get to the basket and create their own shot, more. Players like Kobe, D.Wade, LeBron. So I believe Stuckey was drafted for that reason.
I will concede the “running the offense” point and will not debate it. You all have seen him play more than I have. However, I think most players develop this skill with experience. I believe Chauncey really put the pieces together when Larry Brown was his coach. I agree with Nuetes, PGs like Magic, Isiah, Stockton, and Chris Paul are really rare. Also, don’t forget that all of them have had a stable environment around them. In 4 years, Stuckey has had 3 different coaches with 3 different systems. This is the first year he’s had the same coach. Let’s see if he improves at running Kuester’s offense this year, especially if there are not a bunch of lineup changes. To see that he averaged 4.8 assists/game given the fact he was part of roughly 9 different starting lineups is not too bad.
Last note, I looked at the last 11 NBA champions and here are the players who led in assists/game for the regular seasion for those championship teams.
2009-10 NBA Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant (5.0 / game)
2008-09 NBA Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant (4.9 / game)
2007-08 NBA Boston Celtics – Rajon Rondo (5.1 / game)
2006-07 NBA San Antonio Spurs – Tony Parker (5.5 / game)
2005-06 NBA Miami Heat – Dwyane Wade (6.7 / game)
2004-05 NBA San Antonio Spurs – Tony Parker (6.1 / game)
2003-04 NBA Detroit Pistons – Chauncey Billups (5.7 / game
2002-03 NBA San Antonio Spurs – Tony Parker (5.3 / game)
2001-02 NBA Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant (5.5 / game)
2000-01 NBA Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant (5.0 / game)
1999-00 NBA Los Angeles Lakers – Kobe Bryant (4.9 / game)

Only 2 teams had PGs who were considered leaders at the time they won, Detroit and San Antonio. Ironically, D. Wade, a SG, had the highest assists / game average. The common item with all of these champions is that each player above also had an all-star caliber player at the PF and/or C spot.

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:53:34 +0000

allen, you must be out of your f*cking mind.

By: nuetes

nuetes — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:44:46 +0000

Stuckey isn’t good, but I’m also not sure that he’s worse than some of the guys on that list. Conley, Jack, Hill, Holliday, or Williams to name some. None of those guys are good either though, but Holliday has some potential. I actually like Lowry a lot. To me he might be better than Stuckey but he’s never been put in a position to show it. He’s probably not worse, just a little older. I’m also not sure Stuckey could excel at SG. He might be better suited to play SG, but I’m not sure he’d be a good/great player at either spot. At SG he has to think less and just let the game come to him. Even though he can’t shoot he can still make more things happen off the ball via cutting through the lane. He also doesn’t seem to be a bad catch and shoot player, but when creating his own shot he struggles, which is normally how he’s getting his shot off. Too bad we already have a million SG’s. I wouldn’t be opposed to finding a real PG, but not just any pass first PG like Sessions. An actual good PG, but those are hard to find so Stuckey might be stuck in this role.

By: Allen

Allen — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:21:02 +0000

Stuckey is a stud.
He can shoot…he can run…he strong enough to push through the lane…and his defense is not half bad.
Top 10 point guard in the league…No doubt.

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:13:03 +0000

+1

one problem here is the concept of the “combo” guard, which is just another way of saying “shooting guard with good ballhandling skills,” but that’s a mile away from a point guard. stuckey’s game has plenty of flaws, but i give him a better chance of improving his shooting range and efficiency than suddenly developing playmaking instincts. he has major potential as a scorer and NO POTENTIAL WHATSOEVER as a distributor.