Point Guard – Detroit Pistons – 6’5″, 205 lbs

Strengths

Has a really nice mid-range jump shot. Solid scorer when he gets to the basket. Great finisher around the hoop. Quietly put together a solid season last year. Saw career highs in his free throw percentage, assists per game, and 3-point field goal percentage; though that is still nothing to write home about.

Weaknesses

I’m not sure where Stuckey’s head is at right now. On paper, he had one of the better, if not the best, campaigns of his career last year. But there was a point late in the season when it looked like he lost his job to Will Bynum. Aside from that, for a guard, his shooting range is pretty bad. He shoots an atrocious percentage from behind the arc, but he knows his range and doesn’t take too many ill-advised threes.

What He’ll Cost

My guess is Stuckey will comand anywhere from 7 to 10 million dollars. If we look at Mike Conley from Memphis for a moment, he just signed a 5 year/45 Million dollar extension with The Grizzlies. Conley and Stuckey are very comparable both stat-wise and from the perspective of where they’re at in their careers. Stuckey figures to get something close to Conley’s deal.

Three Potential Fits

Detroit Pistons

The Pistons are pretty much in the driver’s seat here for 1 simple reason: Stuckey is a restricted free agent. They’ve already tendered him his 1-year qualifying offer, which is something in the area of $3 million and change. But seeing as how Stuckey appears to want a multi-year deal, I’d say there is almost no chance he signs it. That means that whenever the lockout is over, any team can sign him to an offer sheet. The only catch is Detroit will have a week to match whatever offer sheet Stuckey may sign.

Los Angeles Clippers

How much fun would it be to watch a lineup with Blake Griffin, Deandre Jordan, Eric Gordon. and Rodney Stuckey? Young athletes just flying all over the place. LA has money to spend, and they have a future star in Blake Griffin that still needs more pieces around him before his team can really be taken seriously. Stuckey figures to be a nice signing if the Clippers can actually make it happen. But their history with these things isn’t all that great.

Indiana Pacers

I’ve been all over the Pacers as a possible destination for a lot of these free agents. There are two huge reasons for that: 1) With a solid cast of improving young players and an athletic scorer in Danny Granger, the Pacers organization is becoming at least a little bit attractive to potential free agents. And 2) They have money to spend. Getting a new starting point guard isn’t exactly a need for Indiana. But bringing in Stuckey to start and then using Collison as a “Jason Terry-type” sixth man could be very interesting. At the end of the day though, Indiana is pretty good at point guard, they might be better off throwing their money at David West.

Prediction

Really no doubt in my mind that Stuckey is staying in Detroit. Joe Dumars traded away Chauncey Billups, who was still Detroit’s best player at the time, with the notion that Rodney Stuckey was the point guard of the future in waiting. I can’t see how after all this they just let him walk for nothing. Stuckey will get his extension with The Pistons. Whether or not he plays the duration of it at Auburn Hills is anyone’s guess.