Comments on: Brandon Knight again suffers, injuring ankle; hapless Pistons drop sixth straight

By: tarsier

tarsier — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:13:06 +0000

No, I’m afraid that’s not what worthless means.

By: G

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:51:31 +0000

That “all-world” should have a line through it. Not sure why that didn’t work.

By: G

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:50:08 +0000

I’ve always thought Stuckey’s best role was as an off-the-bench scorer. With the ball in his hand. Give him a couple decent spot up shooters, a banger down low and some 2nd tier defense to play against and he looks all-world pretty good. Put him as a traditional NBA SG & he gives you neither the perimeter defense nor the shooting you require. Double that at the SF position. As a PG he’s SLIGHTLY better than Knight most nights, which is to say “less than adequate”.

This season he’s worse than usual, and I think that maybe playing out of his natural role has hurt him more than I thought. But he wasn’t that great to begin with.

By: G

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:37:07 +0000

The use of “heals” instead of “heels” is still bothering me, but that’s probably just MY problem.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:21:43 +0000

Some of that is true, but other parts seemingly an incomplete understanding. Stuckey’s higher levels of play are a bit above his head, but not greatly so. The difference is magnified because he’s having his worst year of his career right now, but that’s likely to regress to his mean as well. For Stuckey, it’s always been about efficiency. He’s a good passer for a SG, and a poor passer for a PG. He’s a decent defender, but by no means someone you trust against a big scorer. His rebounding and usage have held relatively steady over time.

The main issue is efficiency. Free throws are efficient, and he’s always drawn them at a high rate. That is a measurable skill, and Stuckey has it. The problem is that he’s really bad at scoring any other way. He’s a terrible jump shooter, and poor finisher at the rim. If he doesn’t get a foul, he probably misses anyway. In his best seasons, he ended up converting more of his shots than normal and drawing a few more fouls (these are likely connected as his improved shooting forced defenders to play him tighter and risk fouls more often). Obviously the Shakespearian tragedy that was his shooting to start the year destroyed any chance that defenders might bail him out this year. And that’s possibly the death of his career. If defenders don’t respect him enough to play tight, he cannot create effective offense. He’ll still draw fouls at a relatively high rate, but it won’t be enough to overcome the drag of his otherwise terrible conversion rate of normal shots.

By: G

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:31:55 +0000

All Star level Stuckey was smoke and mirrors. He did a couple of things well but not THAT well, and he did several things poorly. He had a nice crossover, he could draw fouls & shoot free throws. That’s… about… it.

By: MIKEYDE248

MIKEYDE248 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:01:29 +0000

This game did exactly what I wanted to see (not counting seeing Knight getting injured). I wanted to see some of younger guys playing (Middleton had a pretty good game) and I wanted to see Utah win to knock the Lakers out of the playoffs (every win for them helps).

Every loss for the Pistons right now is really big too. They are in the 9th spot right now with 5 teams below them with only one less win and a couple team with a win or two more. A nice losing streak and they could get to the 4 or 5 spot, but a couple of wins could move them up to the 11 spot.

By: Saul

Saul — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:03:55 +0000

Remember when Stuckey was supposed to be getting near All-Star level? What is his problem?? He had his stretches of playing focused and scoring 20 plus points. There’s no excuse for his checking out mentally this year. I don’t care if Bk7 and moose are the focal points, he can and should be attacking and being another scorer we need.

By: Brandon Knight

Brandon Knight — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:22:24 +0000

Yeah worthless because I say the truth !?

By: qm_22

qm_22 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:23:21 +0000

Funny thing about the grades IMO. Hill getting an F seems harsher than the grades I’ve come to expect for Frank on a road game against a better team, for a game that the Pistons had a chance in and with Knight taken out.
Stuckey getting a C+ seemed like pure subjectivity on supposed psychological insight on his motivations for producing well (and over the course of the season, at that) versus on court production. I thought this website prided itself on objectivity. Not that the grades here are something to be concerned with, but it’s lower than what he’s gotten on worse nights.