Stuckey's Contract Situation

This is my first post on BB in a while ever since I took my writing to PistonPowered for the most part. If you were looking for breakdowns, every breakdown I do is on that site.

As most of you know by now the salary situation of the organization is a mess. We have a lot of accomplished players who are overpaid and we have a couple of good contracts (Bynum, McGrady) which are well worth their money. The player who has gotten most attention lately is Rodney Stuckey.

Stuckey, who was supposed to be Chauncey Billups heir which eventually led to the Allen Iverson trade, has never played up to his potential. Now his rookie contract is expiring and Joe Dumars has to decide how much money he wants to dish out to Rodney. A player he is usually compared to is Michael Conley. Most people expect Stuckey to earn around the same amount of money as the former Ohio standout. I will point out that Stuckey should not earn as much money as Conley. The reasoning for this will be elaborated on later in this text.

First of all let's get the numbers. According to Sham Sports, Conley is going to make $44 mio in six years. That is an average of a little above $7 mio per year. This is supposedly what Stuckey is looking for. Stuckey is known to be a great scorer, a good athlete with good basketball instincts. Conley was largely regarded as the sidekick to the injury-prone Greg Oden. Conley never won a scoring award or anything, he is a pure Point Guard though and that is rare. When comparing the two players you will quickly realize that, at this stage of their career, most of it is mainly based on reputation than on actual skill. While Stuckey is indeed very skilled at getting to the hoop and drawing fouls, he is not a great finisher around the basket and simply not a playmaker. Playmaking ability is a must for any PG in the league and Stuckey certainly has the tools as we saw in his 14 assist night the other week. In order to be a Shooting Guard Stuckey doesn't have the jumpshot. He has shown little improvement over the past few seasons and is hitting at a clip of 28%. This is in unacceptable. A jumpshot can be developed! It is just practice. Ray Allen has become the greatest shooter in NBA history by practice, practice and more practice. Now, Allen Iverson might disagree, but that is how it works for most basketball players, at least for the ones playing outside of Turkey.
So you'd expect Conley to trail Stuckey in scoring by a whole lot. Well, he kind of does. Per 36 minutes he scores 3.8 points less than Stuckey, but he dishes out one more assist. Right now, the reputation looks justified. Conley's primary role on the team is running the offense, not scoring. The secondary role is to play defense and then his scoring comes into play. Conley is playing alongside very very good and young scorers such as OJ Mayo, Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. Stuckey's usage rate is 24% whereas Conley's is only 19% He does not need to score that much, yet he is still only 4 points behind Stuckey. Conley gets more steals, more assists, has less turnovers and shoots a higher percentage from the field. Stuckey gets more rebounds which has to be explained by the fact that he is significantly bigger. Moreover, Conley has shown steady improvement in his shooting touch. When he came out of college most scouts doubted he could have a reliable jumper. He shot 33% beyond the arch in his rookie season and is now hitting them at a 37% clip. He peaked in his sophomore year at 40%, he still improved greatly though. He is much better than Stuckey at this point.

Which brings me to my point. Stuckey hasn't improved. He appears to have peaked one or two years ago. I fully agree that Stuckey would have benefitted from a coach who knows how to play the PG position, players have to accountable for what they do and Stuckey never showed the willingnes to become a great distributor. Conley meanwhile looked like a longshot to remain in the league and has shown steady improvement. He will never be a star, he will be a very good starting PG on any team. Stuckey was supposed to be the savior of this franchise and doesn't even prove he is better than average at this point.

So, when you consider the statistics I think Stuckey should make less than Conley by last year's standard. Taking the new CBA into consideration, which will feature shorter contracts and a lower salary cap, I would argue Rodney should be offered a four year $24 mio contract at a maximum, maybe even a little less. Being the PG on a bad team doesn't help, but the recent flashes of immaturity and lacking leadership won't trigger lots of teams to offer him much more. Try to name one team, which would try to take him on! I mean, there aren't a lot of them. Most of them have a better, an equal or a cheaper PG in place. Would they spend their money on a player who is immature, hasn't improved and cannot run an offense smoothly over the course of the whole season. If a team offers more than that, let him go or sign him and then trade him.

The Stuckey Trade Haunch

Dan Feldman of PistonPowered, my favorite Piston blogger as you may have noticed due to the countless times I'm quoting him, has a haunch. He thinks Rodney Stuckey is going to be traded from the Pistons. He has good reasoning and great insight on Joe Dumars' treatment of other rookies in the past and Joe's assessment of Stuckey's situation with the team.

The top signal is Joe Dumars’ decision not to extend Stuckey. Dumars had never denied an extension to a player on a rookie contract. When Dumars knew he didn’t want to make the necessary investment for a young player, he cut his losses. He still has a couple months to do that with Stuckey.

Making it work shouldn’t be a problem. If Rodney White and Mateen Cleaves had value when Dumars traded them, so does Stuckey.

And

Here’s what Dumars told Pistons.com’s Keith Langlois this summer:

KL: Do you see this as something of a crossroads year for Rodney Stuckey?

JD: I wouldn’t use the word crossroads, but I will say this. He and I, we’ve had some conversations about expanding his role on this team, about assuming more responsibility, more leadership, for the success of us going forward. I think it’s important for him. We’ve had a couple of those conversations, so he understands exactly, going into year four. I think he’s been good, but good is not always good enough. He’s been good, but sometimes you have to be more than good and that’s what we’re looking for from him.

As Feldman explains, Stuckey has been improving for all of his campaigns. He is still getting better, but does Joe Dumars think he has the potential to be an All-Star point guard or shooting guard. If you look throughout the league there is not one contender with a great player at either one of these positions or they have a point forward like the Heat. Stuckey is a scoring point guard and a player like that runs a fine line between scoring and harming the team, just ask the Stephon Marbury's and Steve Francis' of this world.

To make thinks easier, Dan gave a few trade options to think about.

- Stuckey to the Cavaliers for Anthony Parker and a first-round pick
- Stuckey and Jason Maxiell to the Lakers for Lamar Odom
- Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince, Greg Monroe and Tracy McGrady to the Heat for Chris Bosh, Dexter Pittman and Mario Chalmers
- Stuckey and Chris Wilcox to the Thunder for James Harden and Byron Mullens
- Stuckey and Chris Wilcox to the Thunder for James Harden and Cole Aldrich
- Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince and Chris Wilcox to the Trail Blazers for Andre Miller, Nicolas Batum and Joel Przybilla
- Stuckey and Greg Monroe to the Kings for DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson
- Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and DaJuan Summers to the Jazz for Mehmet Okur
- Stuckey, Richard Hamilton and DaJuan Summers to the Wizards for Kirk Hinrich, Kevin Seraphin and Josh Howard

I do not want to go into all of these scenarios since I want to give you my own. I do not think Miami would part with Bosh until next year the way things have been going. If he performs subpar in the playoffs, well, Riles will figure something out. Odom won't leave LA.
I like the idea of the Kings trade, because of Cousins. If Cousins keeps acting up Sacramento might settle for a lesser ball player, but a certainly more reliable one. I just do not see the motivation for the Kings to acquire Stuckey when they already have Tyreke Evans, they are basically the same player, big and strong combo-guards without a jumper and a good knack for dring the ball to the hole.
The two trades I would consider most likely are with the Kings and the Blazers, I would not do both of them though. It would be a good proposal, I do not see them upgrading the roster. I would love Andre Miller on our team, I'm a fan of Nick Batum and Joel Pryzbilla is a very capable and underrated big man in this league. The Blazers might exchange STuckey for Miller since he is a younger player and can drive the basketball. The Blazers need a playmaker though, especially since Brandon Roy is having knee problems. I do not see Portland parting with Batum and I think that is the deal breaker actually!

So, after all my smart-assing, here are my ideas with a little bit of reasoning:

- Stuckey, Maxiell and Daye for Atlanta's Josh Smith (acquiring a talented big man and a great athlete)
- Stuckey and Maxiell for Charlotte's Nazr Mohammed (we need big men and it is an expiring contract)
-

Pistons Trade Dreams: Chris Paul

So, Chris Paul unofficially demands a trade out of New Orleans (source Yahoo!Sports)! Well, let's dream!
The Hornets ownership will not get bac equal value, there's just no way that is going to work for them, but I will propose something that will give them back good value and at the same time two expiring contracts.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2fnmhw3

As you can see, the Pistons would offer two expiring contracts in Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey. It would open up the 1-guard for Darren Collison and enable Stuckey to play the 2-guard. Tayshaun is such a versatile player that he'll fit with any team he plays for. If you want you can talk about draft picks too, but not necessarily. Although I'd hate to see Prince go, if you can work a trade for Chris Paul, you can't pass it up! Even Joey D, who is so fond of Stuck, would pull the trigger!

Chris Paul would be a great PG and franchise player complementing the skills of the other players as a distributor and facilitator enabling Ben Gordon and Charlie V to get open looks from the perimeter. Paul's also a terrific defender and has great leadership, he would easily carry the Pistons back into the playoffs all by himself, but as the roster is currently constructed, the Pistons might even make the second round.

So let's keep on dreaming!

Pistons finally coming into their own

The Pistons are finally playing with some kind of consistency. We've waited for this since the 5-4 start to the season that had us hoping for a playoff run against one of the elite teams in the East and maybe surprising one or two teams, meanwhile having terrific contracts as potenital trade bait if the right offer was made to Joe Dumars. Well, mainly injuries prevented the plan from happening and after the good start, Detroit decided to drop 21 out of their next 28 games, sporting a 13-game losing streak and generally losing to teams that were very very beatable losing to the Raptors twice for instance.

A losing streak like that usually takes a toll on the players especially when the veterans wo have been leading this team for several years are out and injured and a new hierarchy has to develop. Rodney Stuckey isn't capable of leading this team yet (or ever) and the new additions Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva have been struggling with injuries of their own. A lot of people aren't satisfied what those two have shown but what a lot of people also don't understand is that supposedly minor aches can have a big impact on what you are capable of doing. Sprained ankles don't seem to be bad for a pure shooter like Gordon, but you lose lift and agility, that way you don't get the seperation from your defender, your drive isn't as big a weapon and when you shoot the jumper you don't get up as high. Kobe never seemed to have problems shooting because his finger was hurt, he started struggling with the ankle and groin injuries. Players usually play through sprained wrists pretty easily, but everything that aches in your lower back or downwards has a huge impact on your performance. That's why it has been bad for the Pistons, since most of their injuries were lower body injuries that effect the players in so many different ways, and what's worse, next morning when you get up out of bed, you feel every single move from the night before.

But there has been a change in dynamics ever since Tay and Rip returned from their injuries and their play has picked up. Tay looks like the Prince of the Palace again and Rip has been dead-on the past three games, even though he almost cost us that Spurs game but whatever dude.If you look at the last 20 games they have won 10 of those 20. I don't know if you realized that, I sure didn't. I'm so accustomed to this team winning around .700 of their games that being mediocre still seems, well, really bad. The overall record also doesn't help to see small improvements.They have against the teams they are supposed to lose to, but all in all they have been hovering around .500 and you can see from their win against the Spurs, this team has the talent to compete. Ok, San Antonio is not the team of '05 or '07, but they are still a playoff contender in the Western Conference so we'll take that win. The Schedule will become a little bit rougher playing Denver, Boston and Cleveland in the next two weeks, but if we get out of this playing at .500 still, I will be pretty proud of this team.

We have a lot of good pieces, we need some more additions but summing it up. I like this team, it's got character. Don't get down on Joe Dumars, he's the best GM there is for this franchise. I'm not saying the FA signings this summer were horrible, I think both C-Nuv and BG will be valuable assets for the years to come. Instead of focusing on trading Rip or BG I think we should explore trades for Stuckey. This team needs a true PG and a true C, that's all there is to it. We won't be a title contender with those two positions filled out, but the balance will be much better.