Comments on: Rodney Stuckey sets career high in assists, ties career low in field goal attempts in win over Toronto

By: 2Tough

2Tough — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:30:42 +0000

Good article Patrick. As a well known Stuckey lover, I appreciated this thread, but the criticism of him not shooting enough and finding the right balance is certainly very valid.

I do think Stuckey is playing with a sort of chip on his shoulder right now and it’s evident in that post game interview. No, not because of anything someone has said here or on sports talk radio. But because of his diminished role on the team, and being taken out of the starting lineup during one of his best stretches in his career. Even last night, he only played 27 minutes.

By: Laser

Laser — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:39:04 +0000

i was saying for a while that rip’s not finished. every time PP started talking about how rip was washed up unless he was “on a mission,” i was there with evidence to the contrary. he’s spent the last three years fighting with a bunch of other guys for shots and minutes on a team light on strong pick-setters and virtually devoid of passers.

among dumars’s plethora of mistakes over the past three seasons, perhaps his single greatest mistake was locking the team into major long-term commitments to gordon and rip. if either one of these guys was off the roster right now, we’d have enough cap space this summer to make a legitimate contract offer to zach randolph. but with absurd commitments to both of these guys, we’re completely handcuffed. they can’t coexist, and they’re both already overpaid to a certain degree, so being forced to share minutes and shots– keeping them from playing consistently– has made their values plummet even further. the team would be better off with either one off the roster completely. but we can’t even showcase them because there just aren’t enough minutes.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:35:42 +0000

Somehow, I’m guessing Kuester would respond to a player who asked him a direct question. At least if the player didn’t cus him out and insult him extensively prior to asking. But it is an entertaining theory.
In general response to the game: Stuckey needs to find a better balance. But it’s nice to see that he can be a pretty good distributor if he so chooses.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:30:20 +0000

Also, could you make Ben Gordon into the first-round-of-2009-playoffs-Ben-Gordon please?

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:27:11 +0000

He can do this 4-5 games in a row. That’s how he has managed to win two Player of the Week awards in his career. I want to see him do it for most of a season.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:37:54 +0000

I’m going to take the focus off Stuckey for a minute and focus on the elephant in the room. Rip is playing far better basketball than Ben Gordon. I’ve been saying this for a long time. When the Pistons signed BG I didn’t get it because we already had an all-star SG. Now 2 years later after everybody says Rip is washed up and wants to trade him for almost anything and make room for BG but guess what? Rip is still playing better than Gordon. The thing that BG does best Rip does better plus a host of other skills that BG doesn’t do as well (i.e. move without the ball, defense, passing). This summer we’ve got to try to trade BG, make amends with Rip (if it’s not too late) and let him finish out his contract and retire a Piston. You may all think I’m crazy but someone answer me this – how many times this season has BG scored 24 points or more and shot over 50% in a Pistons’ win?

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:21:54 +0000

Now could you improve Charlie V’s defense, please?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:50:47 +0000

Here’s an unfounded theory:
Stuckey was sent to the bench and approached Kuester about it.
“Yo coach, why am I coming off the bench now?”
Kuester walks away, because he doesn’t respond to this question.
An assistant: “Mac is doing a better job of distributing the ball right now. You need to get your teammates easy shots and make better decisions on the shots you take.”
Stuckey to self: “I’ll show them what happens when I don’t shoot, just like Kobe did!”
Unfortunately for Stuckey, this ends up being a good strategy…

By: jack

jack — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:23:18 +0000

Tell that to Chicago when he dropped 40 points on them or Sacramento when he dropped 39 on them during the same week. Don’t tell me he can not score. If he got up 20 shots he could easily be scoring 20+ a night. He just does not need to. I think he can do this against any team.

By: jack

jack — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:18:13 +0000

I agree with you. The team has so many other great scorers that Stuckey does not need to score a lot. He can be a pass first point guard in the mold of rondo. There are games when rondo has 5 or 6 points but 20 assists and 5 rebounds and is still averaging 10+ points for the season. Stuckey should play like this all the time and only score when it is the best option. Trust me he can rack up 10/12 points in a hurry, he has proven that but with the offensive fire power this team has there is no reason he should not be racking up double figure assists most nights.