Comments on: Richard Hamilton’s mission proves beneficial for himself and the Pistons

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:41:46 +0000

@ Laser – Agreed, agreed and agreed.

I too like Stuckey – as a SG. I think most teams would see a HUGE benefit in having the guy as a SG off the bench – He’s aggressive, and can get to the rack as well as anyone in the league.. Problem is, that’s simply NOT what you want in a PG (Unless of course you combine that aggressiveness with play-making ability -(Williams, Rose, CP3, etc))

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:03:24 +0000

…and all three shooting guards he’s been forced to coexist with are used to creating their own shots. i mean, come on.

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:04:32 +0000

@hayes: also, just to be very concise for once… yes, rip is in the midst of his third straight poor season. he’s also in the midst of his third straight season of being forced to coexist with two other shooting guards playing major roles, without the benefit of a point guard in the rotation. that’s all i’m saying.

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:09:54 +0000

@ds: which came first, the chicken or the egg? did stuckey fail to rack up any assists because prince and gordon shoot a combined 4 for 16, or did they shoot so poorly because their point guard is incapable of helping them get better shots?? i mean, stuckey took as many shots as they did combined! he shot well, but the kid had yet another fine stat line for a shooting guard. the only thing we can say for sure is that these three didn’t look particularly good together and that t-mac and rip looked a whole lot better. the other thing this game reinforced is that no matter how you shuffle the combinations, rip’s gain is gordon’s loss and vice versa. so this points to the roster being the problem, not any one player (except maybe rodney “shoot it again” stuckey; it’s easy to point the finger at him. and, after all, the pistons are 2-0 this season when he doesn’t play). rotation tweaks here and there can make games more bearable to watch, but i’d give t-mac and rip the chance to start. why not? your best playmaker and the guy you want to ship out of town may as well get the chance to start and set the tone. stuckey and gordon would be just as effective coming off the bench for some instant offense.

@jason: i can see the value of pairing stuckey and gordon in the starting lineup for one reason: gordon was signed to pair with stuckey like a fine wine, and both of them are probably tradable, so i suppose it can’t hurt to see if these guys have a future together (no homo). one game in it looks pretty sad, but we should have enough of a sample size by the trade deadline to make a determination. if rip can’t be traded and joe understands that these three can not succeed together, maybe he can at least get a proper look at the guys he envisioned as his dream backcourt.

as for stuckey, i don’t think he’s trying to pad his stats. i just think he’s being rodney stuckey. and what rodney stuckey does is score. he’s been interviewed time and time again and admitted he’s always looking to score. maybe he’d like to be a point guard, but it’s just not in his nature. i try not to hold it against him, except for the fact that it really seems like he’s not trying to run the offense. fun fact: against the clippers, stuckey played 22 minutes and “dazzled” us with another two assist performance (just 28 minutes versus toronto, too. that’s kind of interesting. yeah, and, uh that means he played 50 minutes combined, a bit more than one full NBA game, and totaled 4 assists… god help us), but the fun part about stuckey’s assists versus the clipps was that they both came in the first five (5) minutes. i believe one was on the first possession and the next was with just over seven minutes left in the first. then eighteen full minutes with the ball in his hands and no assists to show for it. i do think stuckey could be a fine shooting guard. heck, that’s the position he’s been playing anyways; we just haven’t regularly started a point guard in 25 months. but if ben gordon has league-wide value and doesn’t work out as a tandem with stuckey, maybe dumars suddenly develops some brains and moves him. then rip and stuckey could be our shooting guards, and i’d be fine with that. i’d even live with stuckey as our backup PG. it seems like he makes better decisions with the ball when it’s not in his hands all the time, so i’ll agree that we’ll never be any good as long as he’s charged with running the offense, but i think stuckey could be on a good pistons team. as a shooting guard or instant offense off the bench. but he’s unwilling or unable to make his teammates better. you’re right about that.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:54:07 +0000

@ ds

Saying the rotation is “Better” is quite subjective, and Laser’s breakdown already explains why. While BG may fit better with Stuckey – simply because he has the ability to create his own shots – it doesn’t make our team any better.

Toronto has one of the worst back court’s in the league – so we can’t read into too much here. Laser hit it on the head – who ever is paired with T-Mac will ultimately look like the better SG on that night. Plain and simple.

Why were all us fans so adamant about moving Gordon into the starting lineup? Because he was playing much better, which has everything to do with the fact that he was #1 coming off the bench, and #2 paired with T-Mac – who is able to set up shots for everyone around him.

The main constant here? Rodney Stuckey doing everything in his power to pad his stats – probably as directed by his agent, in this contract year. We will all see that this is no fluke – Gordon will not play as well now that he is paired with Stuck. RIP will continue to be effective, being he finally has a facilitator playing aside him on the bench..

I’ve been saying for weeks that T-Mac needs to start, which if he were healthy then im sure he would be. Until he can play 30 minutes a night though, that’s obviously not a logical option. BUT, it would surely give us the best chance to win.

Bottom line – until Rodney Stuckey is OFF THIS TEAM, the Pistons will not get a whole lot better then we are now. We may have a couple nights where we all come together – but we will not consistently win any more games then we are now, no matter who starts at the SG position.

By: ds

ds — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:41:40 +0000

@Laser: I agree that the roster is imbalanced and that this hurts the team. But it sounds like you don’t think that changes can make a difference?

I imagine that Rip will play consistently better with T-Mac and will probably be more consistent in his scoring and shooting percentage. If he can do that – then it will make the team better. They may not win a lot more games, but it will be an improvement and make the games more watchable.

I also imagine that BG will work out fine in the starting lineup – he doesn’t require as much as Rip does and so the offense can become more flexible. The starting offense looked out of whack – but that isn’t surprising to me considering Rip has been in the starting lineup for so long. I’ll worry if they don’t get better soon – but for now I’m hopeful.

Stuckey didn’t get assists – but BG was 1-7, Prince was 3-9 – so what can he do? CV was 8-15 but I’m not sure how many of those got assists.

This is not to say that the roster is fixed or good, but I think that the rotation is better and the pieces compliment each other better. Not great – but better.

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:36:04 +0000

@hayes: i don’t think there is a SINGLE thing wrong with hamilton himself. as a primary scoring option with good screens from bigs and a good passer feeding him the ball, there’s no reason to believe he’s any less of a player than he was when he was an all-star. the team is the problem, because of those above deficiencies and the sheer number of shooting guards on the roster.

rip gets a lot of attention (all of it, even?) for a strong performance off the bench and what appears to be a newfound determination. but what about the starters? stuckey, paired with the more compatible backcourt mate, dished out a grand total of two (2) assists… one (1) point more than rip’s replacement scored on seven shots! stuckey’s stat line, as usual, looks like a solid performance by a shooting guard, and he didn’t get gordon going any better than he did rip. our backup backcourt stomped the brains out of those guys.

it’s not about who starts or who comes off the bench. it’s about a sh*tty roster full of guys who play the same position. whichever shooting guard gets paired primarily with a playmaker like t-mac is going to look better than the poor sap who gets to stand around while stuckey jacks up shots. there’s plenty wrong with this team, and very little of it has to do with rip himself.

he needs screens and passes, and joe KNEW this full well when he offered the guy that long-term extension, his first step in this “rebuilding” nightmare. the problem is that he surrounded his captain and highest paid player with a bunch of guys who are incompatible with him.

By: The Point Forward » Posts Court Vision: The latest around the league «

The Point Forward » Posts Court Vision: The latest around the league « — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:24:39 +0000

[...] Dan Feldman of Piston Powered touches on Rip Hamilton’s “mission” and Tracy McGrady’s throw-back performance in Detroit’s victory at Toronto on Wednesday. Whenever an aging guy like McGrady makes a [...]

By: neutes

neutes — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:05:29 +0000

I’m of the belief, and I’m also of the belief that my belief is correct, that hamilton benefits greatly by playing with guys with great awareness. and i’m also fo the belief that awareness is a great attribute, probably above all other attributes. mcgrady has that. say what you want about his eroding athleticism he still sees what’s happening on the court better than any player we have. he sees the full spectrum (i had a better way to put that but completely forgot it as i typed). everyone knows Rip is better coming off screens, or when he’s given the ball at just the right time, unfortunately since Chauncey left nobody else has had the awareness to know exactly when that right time is.

these guys had a great article about awareness, and this might be my 2nd favorite truehoop blog, behind PP of course. :) hoopspeak.

http://hoopspeak.com/2010/11/awareness-greatness-kobe-bryant-kevin-garnett/

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:45:03 +0000

@Laser:
So are you saying that Hamilton had been playing well this season prior to yesterday?
The fact is, he’s in the midst of his third straight poor season. He still has time to turn this one around, and I hope he does, but if you’re insinuating that writing what was written yesterday was premature, then you’re wrong. There have been significant signs of decline in his game for some time now.
And let’s not forget, he was playing against arguably the softest perimeter in the NBA in that game yesterday. He played fantastic, but I’ll be slightly more impressed if he saves a redemptive performance or two for a team that’s not horrible.