This isn't as much about Rodney's attitude as it is about my own. I was admittedly off the Stuckey bandwagon. I didn't think he belonged in the teams plans for the future. I thought he was overpaid. I've changed my mind. He's really embraced the new team dynamic and emerged as a leader in a way that he was never able to during the previous seasons (despite the talk). I love Stuckey attack mode. We need that. He's vocal and energetic. And he's developing good chemistry with the young guys. I think he'll be a good/important piece moving forward. and contrary to popular belief, Dumars knows what he is doing.
I agree with everything you said... except that I'm not quite ready to commit to the bandwagon. The last few games, Stuckey has shown some real promise. I think I will wait to see if he can maintain his focus for the rest of the shortened season before I make any commitments to SuperCollider.
I'd love to be wrong about Stuckey too. It's only 3-4 games but I think we are seeing something change. Stuckey likes playing with BK and they work well together. Getting rid of Rip's negative energy really helped.
He is still avg only 14.7 ppg and shooting 43% from the field. And the team is 10-22. I need to see more consistency over a longer stretch. it's like the Maxiel syndrome where they look great for a few games soon to be followed by looking not so great for a few games.
If you look at the last 2 weeks, Stuckey is shooting 52% from the field while averaging over 20 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game. The Pistons are 6-2 in their last 8 games. I think Brandon Knight deserves some of the credit for Stuckey's improvement. The truly great players make their teammates better. I think BK7 will fall into that category. I think Coach Frank deserves some credit, too, for having the offense running more smoothly. Rodney still puts his head down and goes into Super Collider mode once in a while, though. I wish he could solve that issue.
The refs reward Stuck for causing contact pretty often, so it's better that he errs on the physical side. As a PG, it was annoying, but as a SG, it is sort of awesome.
I like the aggressive, attacking nature. Sometimes, though, when you've got 2 or 3 guys collapsing on you, it's best to dish the ball to a wide open teammate.
The last positive Stuckey thread was titled something like, "Does Stuckey make up for the Darko Pick?".................... Between that post and this one..........he's had over 50 different threads...... Good to see that at least he's tickled somebody's fancy recently....... BTW........my favorite thread was "Stuckey likes bubble gum ice cream"............ I wonder if he likes bacon......................
Agreed. It's not quite as much of a problem at SG though, and I think Frank has done a good job of pulling him when he gets into that mode too much. He's always been a scorer, and now that he's free to be that, he's playing better.
Just realized from the last nights "trip to the line" game from him. He kind of is a poor man's version of Jerry Stackhouse. Stack in his prime anyway.
I'm VERY pleased with Running Rodney these days. Rodney is actually on a teams scouting report to keep him out of the lane and yet he's still getting there, that's impressive. I believe that the only difference is that (1)He's doing it from the SG position as and not the PG position HALLELUJAH! and (2) he's FINALLY getting a friendly whistle from the refs. Even during my days of hating Jogging Rodney I used to get extremely frustrated at the lack of respect Stuckey got from the refs, now in his 5th rookie year he's finally getting a favorable whistle.
I was tired of this topic yesterday......... I'm still tired of it today............ Does that make me..................Retired.....???
^From Vincent Goodwill's twitter. I think that right there is a big reason for the attitude adjustment, especially after the Kuester debacle.
The Pistons are better with Stuckey on the floor than with any other single rotation player...http://www.82games.com/1112/1112DET.HTM Everyone hated Stuckey, I think, because he was the "anointed one," but he's never been a bad player. I'm glad as everyone else here to see him developing into a leader, and to see the positive impact he's having on the team.
I think people hated the idea of forcing Stuckey to be something that he's not. His game seems a lot more fluid now that the PG responsibilities are lifted off his shoulders. He's developing a nice chemistry with Knight.
I don't fault Stuckey for being "anointed", I fault Joe and previous coaches for that. Stuck has looked pretty good over the last 4 games. I hope that he can keep it going so we can scratch off another position on the Pistons' list of needs. I've ripped on Rodney non-stop this season but I still root for him. I really do want him to succeed. Especially now that Joe has went all-in with him from a contract standpoint.
