Stuckey got 8% of the minutes and 50% of the steals for the Pistons last night. I agree that he's a PG. He's not a traditional PG, but either is Chauncey and that seems to be working out pretty well for us (and not for all the teams that couldn't think outside the norms). So far it looks like his J is his biggest weakness. That doesn't sound like a shooting guard to me. And you are right to factor Afflalo into the analysis. Assuming they play together, Stuckey is clearly the 1 and AA is clearly the 2. Stuck is truly feeling his way around out there. Don't underestimate how much stuff he probably has going through his head with all of the plays in Saunders' playbook. He's not to the point yet where he can just flow. So, excuse the mistakes and enjoy watching a Pistons who is dangerous with the ball.
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Someone, I can't remember who it was, earlier was talking about Stuckey passing to Rip (I think this was the start of the 4th) and then he was running at the 2. He was passing to him when he was like 2' away from him. Against Milwauwkee he was picking up his dribble way above the top of the key and locking in on Sheed to pass it to him. I'm afraid against a good team, a playoff series, that these will be turnovers. I am really only talking about ball handling here, not defense or his abilty to drive and score. He no doubt has poise, confidence etc. He is keeping CB off the floor, he can play. I can see him having diffculty being pressured in the playoffs like DET did to Beno Undrih in '05(Or whatever his name is that lit 'em up in Sacto.). That's a long way away, no doubt, but it is what I am interested in seeing play out.
Suckey is a player that makes things happen. It seems to me that with a player like that, sometimes statistics can cloud the picture on how effective he is. He is a big positive to our team and in my opinion because he is so involved in what goes on on the court when he is playing he will always make enough mistakes in a game for anyone with even a minimal amount of basketball knowledge to be able to point out. However, it seems to me that that is entirely the wrong way to look at him. Zeke was much the same way. He always made tons of mistakes on the court but in the end he became one of the 50 greatest NBA player's of all time. Whereas someone like Joe D. made a lot fewer mistakes during a game on offense but his involvement in our offense was secondary to Zeke's by a significant amount. Stuckey is very effective without putting up Hollinger type numbers, whereas someone like Murray can put up great numbers and still be a big negative.
ernie i do think you bring up some good points. i only noticed it in this game, but i think stuckey picked up his dribble too quickly, versus someone like afflalo who only picks it up when he's ready to do something. but, i think a lot of that is just learning the offense and getting comfortable with it, and i don't think it's a big deal (perhaps better than over-dribbling like arroyo).
Lets get down to specifics as to why Stuckey is effective out there. Studying film, it gets real obvious that the other team lines its players up to prevent Stuckey from driving in. Now, the defenders on the other team have a whole lot of things to worry about, so when they are worrying about Stuckey, they have to drop worrying about some of those other things. Which opens things up for the other four players other than Stuckey. So with 2 points scored, he just had his most effective game.
I think that a good example of that was when he made that dangerous cross-court pass to Rip. The pass took forever and almost got picked off by 2 separate players, but when it finally got there, Rip had plenty of time to get his shot off. It was in transition and they collapsed to keep Stuck from taking it in.
I had not noticed it before but looking at the last two games there were a couple of instances where the dribble wsa picked up to soon and he looked for help and it took a while for someone to help out. ....... Then there was that pass he made into the stands to somebody who looked familiar ...maybe it was Dumars4ever
It couldn't have been me, Dre, unless Stuckey has Superman-level vision...no one else would have been able to see up into the rafters where I was sitting!
