FanHouse Rodney Stuckey

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

Hard to believe that several NBA general managers can have regrets after two years, but it's true. The results of the 2007 NBA Draft are slowly reaping, which should teach a lesson to their 2009 brethren on Thursday about taking chances on raw college players, international prospects and even those who are allegedly "proven."

The biggest debate two years ago was whether the Portland Trail Blazers should take Greg Oden or Kevin Durant first overall. Oden was a franchise center out of Ohio State while Durant was the smooth scoring swingman from Texas. Durant had the better workout with the Blazers, apparently blowing the mind of coach Nate McMillan. Yet, the Blazers stuck with conventional thinking and took the big man.

There's a little NBA trading spice coming out of Woj's internet-making machine recently, in the form of (another?) rumor involving Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. This time, they were reportedly offered to Detroit in a deal that would have sent Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey to Beantown.

(Quick aside: Is it just me or is the NBA offseason easily the most fun of any sport?) Anyway, it appears, based on Woj's sources, that this rumor is likely to gain very little steam, primarily because Danny Ainge is dealing with "Bring in Rasheed Wallace to win a championship" Joe Dumars, as opposed to "Draft Darko, Trade Chauncey for Iverson" Joe Dumars.

Maybe they should rename the building, "The Palace King James Tore Down."

The Cavaliers took no time in putting their foot to the throat of the Detroit Pistons, closing them out in the third quarter with 16-6 run. The Pistons, a powerhouse over the last seven years, will not reach the conference finals for the first time in seven years. The cause of their downfall? The only man with less fear of the Palace than Ron Artest.

LeBron James had 36 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists to again create the majority of the punch for the Cavs, who will now have up to a week of off time before facing the winner of the Atlanta-Miami showdown.

With the way the Cavaliers are playing, those teams might want to put off facing the Cavs as long as possible.

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There's not a single team in the NBA that can claim they know how to stop LeBron James, but the one thing the Pistons could hang their hat on was the fact that they've traditionally done the best job at slowing him down: In 23 career meetings in the regular season, he's averaged "just" 23.7 points against the Pistons, his fewest against any team in the league, on 41.5% shooting.

Unfortunately for Detroit, trends don't win playoff games, players do. LeBron exploded for 38 points on ultra efficient shooting: 13-20 from the field and 11-14 from the line. With him leading the charge and a balanced supporting cast chipping in (none of his teammates topped 13 but four players finished with at least 12), the Pistons never had a chance as the Cavaliers won every quarter.

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During the second half of Miami's win in Detroit, after a tougher-than-usual bucket from Dwyane Wade, Jeff Van Gundy made a particularly keen observation.

"It's a joke how good this guy is," Van Gundy remarked.

Even though Wade finished with 39 points, it wasn't his offense, but his defense that ended up sealing the victory for the Heat down the stretch.

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A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Magic on Dec. 29.

Integrating Allen Iverson into Detroit's offense is an ongoing process that hasn't been easy, and Michael Curry isn't done trying new things. Earlier this month he seemed to settle on a "smallball" lineup featuring three guards and Tayshaun Prince playing out of position at power forward, but that's left the Pistons exposed on the defensive end.

More recently, injuries to both Iverson (who missed the second half on Dec. 23) and Rip Hamilton (who's sat out the last two games completely) have forced the team back to a more traditional lineup, and considering the Pistons have responded with four straight wins, including Monday night against the Magic, Curry seems ready to explore moving one of his established perimeter players to the bench.

"The big lineup makes us better defensively," Curry said. "And at the end of the day, we're going to have to make sure we're good enough defensively."

I caught up with Deron Williams in the visitors' locker room an hour or so before Friday's double-overtime marathon in Detroit. We chatted about the best point guards in the East, the surprising controversy surrounding Carlos Boozer's recent comments about opting out and the decisions his team has to make this summer.

Matt Watson: I know you practiced against [Rodney Stuckey] in Vegas, right? I was wondering what you think of his emergence and how he's taken the reins from Chauncey [Billups]?
Deron Williams: I've definitely liked him as a player since he got into the league. I didn't know much about him before he got into the league because he went to a smaller school, but he's out here making a name for himself. He's one of the up and coming point guards in this league. I was definitely impressed with him this summer, playing against him everyday.

MW: He kind of reminds me, and I think he reminds a lot of people, a little bit of you -- he's a little bit bigger and stronger [than most point guards]. Do you see that comparison at all?
DW: He's more of a scorer than I was coming out. I'm more of a pass-first guy, but I've adapted my scoring a little bit. He's definitely big and strong, gets to the hole, finishes with contact and definitely added the three-point shot to his game.

After hinting as much yesterday, Michael Curry confirmed today that Rodney Stuckey will join the starting lineup. He's replacing Kwame Brown, bumping Allen Iverson to off-guard, Rip Hamilton to the three, Tayshaun Prince to the four and Rasheed Wallace to center.

I'm not sure a three-guard lineup will work on a regular basis, but it's certainly worth a shot. Stuckey has turned the corner in his last six games, averaging 12.5 points (.476 FG) and 6.5 assists in just under 25 minutes a game. The offense seems to flow better when he's in the game as Iverson can focus on scoring and Prince doesn't have to play out of position.

Offensively, Hamilton's role shouldn't change, and in fact he may have an easier time shedding bigger players trying to keep up. The same goes for Prince, who should have a mismatch drawing bigger defenders out to the wing. The concern will be on the defensive end, though it's worth pointing out Prince has already had a career year crashing the boards with 6.6 rebounds a game.

If he didn't know it before, Michael Curry is learning that being an NBA coach is as much about massaging egos as it is drawing up X's and O's. In his comments following Detroit's loss to the Trail Blazers on Sunday, Curry was blunt with his criticism about Tayshaun Prince: "Tay didn't play well tonight."

Prince, who's rarely one to give a juicy post-game quote, was clearly surprised by Curry's assessment. From Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:

"Huh? Wow. I thought I was playing pretty good, if you ask me. ... I was upset I came out in the first quarter, because I thought I started off the game well, trying to get guys into the flow. It's always tough for me because I'm in a position where I'm put at the point guard position and I'm trying to make plays for (teammates). Sometimes I'm going to have a good night and sometimes it's going to take me out of my rhythm.

"I don't know what's going on. Hopefully, (coaches) could have said something after the game and let us know what was going on. They didn't do it, so I don't know."

There was plenty of debate after the Suns' win over the Pistons regarding the flagrant foul call on Shaquille O'Neal that resulted in his immediate ejection. Most in the Suns' locker room (not surprisingly) thought that Shaq was simply going for the ball, and that the awkward fall that the Pistons' Rodney Stuckey took after the collision was the reason that the refs went with the more severe flagrant two penalty. Shaq himself had a simpler explanation for Stuckey's hard fall: basic physics.

"When you understand the laws of physics like I do, the laws of physics state that a body in motion stays in motion," Shaq said. "So when you have two objects that meet in the air, the smaller object is gonna fall much harder at the same rate of speed. I've never been the type of player to take anybody out. I was going for the ball, little guy ran into a brick wall, and you know, he fell, and he added a little bit to the end. The referees looked at how he fell I think. But it's nothing I'm worried about, I've never been that type of player. If you understand physics like that, anytime you come in there out of control like that and you run into a brick wall, you're going to get that effect."

"I know I was going for the ball. I've played 17 years, I'm not a dirty player. I don't get dunked on. Little guy tried to come in my house, I wanted to block the shot, and he fell. If you apply the laws of physics, you know why he fell the way he fell. Period."

Physics had its role in Stuckey's fall, but Shaq had more than a little do do with it himself.