Yes he would. If you're going to bring Ben Gordon off the bench to carry the bulk of your scoring load from the SG position then the guy starting ahead of him needs to be a token starter. Token starters are guys lie Keith Bogans and Thabo Sefolosha, guys who can hit spot up treys and defend, playing 16-20 mpg, AA can thrive in that role. Truthfully Rodney would be a waste of talent and millions of salary cap space in that role.
You don't think that both Gordon and Stuckey can have scoring roles on this team? If we just cut Will Bynum out of the playing rotation (as we should), T-Mac, Gordon and Stuckey can all play 30 minutes a night.
Well after an evening of back and forth bickering we finally get to a place of agreement! LOL! Go Pistons! Problem is, just when you cut Will out of the rotation, you have that one game where you need to play him - matchup against a small PG, team needs energy, foul trouble etc etc and he ALWAYS plays great for that ONE game, then he's back into the rotation, and then when you're ready to pull him, he has another great outing......... Good Grief!
Jamal Crawford DeShawn Stevenson Arron Afflalo J.R. Smith Shannon Brown Eddie House Michael Redd Corey Brewer Marcus Thornton Jason Richardson CJ Miles Nick Young ...Thing is a replacement for Stuckey at SHOOTING Guard is the last thing that we need right now (unless we can move Rip or Gordon).
I don't like any of our guards to be honest. Only ones I like back there are T-Mac and Daye and thats not even their natural positions. We have PG's trying to be SG's. SG's who cannot seem to shoot straight.
Special K touched on it during the game last night. Afflalo opened and closed the gym when he was with the Pistons. He's worked very hard on his game which is why he has improved from his rookie season. He is also a lot, lot smarter player then The Trust Fund Baby. (No wonder they couldn't wait to get him out of Detroit. Hard work and intelligence has no place on the Pistons.)
That's a really weak list. Shannon Brown, Eddie House, a half-dead Michael Redd and Deshawn Stevenson? Really? I'm even more convinced in my side of the argument now. You really believe those guys could give us Stuckey's production (when they never have come close)...? Seems like a stretch to me. Jason Richardson and Crawford are the only guys on the list that's probably better than Stuckey and they are older players who probably aren't available anyway. Nick Young can score, but does nothing else, so I wouldn't take him over Stuckey. Afflalo is a nice role player, but as I've said before, he's in a perfect role in Denver. He couldn't be effective if he was asked to do what Stuckey is.
I think it's easy to look smart when you aren't be asked to make plays and you are just shooting open corner jumpers and playing defense. Stuckey would look a bit "smarter" if he were asked to do a lot less. I don't remember nearly as many people saying he was a dumb basketball player when he backed up Chauncey in 2008 as a rookie.
Relax, Stuckey is not going anywhere, but you hit on a good point: the right companionship. A GM and Coach should have a good feel for this direction. You look for a symbiotic relationship and not a high end, one sided dominating one. DWilliams would be wrong and wouldn't come here. Now take someone like Daniel Gibson...huge talent just lost, but with the right coaching could be quite the catch (age 24 and some experience, ahem!).
I don't think that is entirely fair to say, considering Stuckey has improved his percentages, his foul rate, his finishing and his defense have all come a long way since then.
This is Stuckey's progress over the past 4 years. FG%: .401, .439, .405, .427 3P%: .188, .295, .228, .269 FT%: .814, .803, .833, .868 RPG: 2.3, 3.5, 3.8, 3.0 APG: 2.8, 4.9, 4.8, 4.5 SPG: 0.9, 1.0, 1.4, 1.1 BPG: 0.1, 0.1, 0.2, 0.1 TO: 1.37, 2.19, 2.23, 2.07 PF: 1.98, 2.75, 2.81, 2.74 PPG: 7.6, 13.4, 16.6, 15.3 Disregarding the jump in numbers from year 1 to year 2, which can be attributed to Billups' departure and his subsequent promotion to the starting PG, I don't see anything that jumps out at me. He did improve his FT shooting, I'll give him that. Other than that, his stats have flatlined since 2008. Stuckey is a very good player. He is strong and isn't afraid of contact. He will have a good NBA career. But, I doubt his ceiling is much higher than where he is right now.
12 million dollars worth of world class catch-and-shoot rotting on the bench. Best conditioned player in the NBA watching while the New Look Pistons are sucking wind. Better than journeyman means someone who can drive to the hoop and still know where the shooting guard is. Franchise point can drive and find the shooting guard and a forward, and hit a jumper.
