From Pistons.com:
Stuckey, who wowed NBA personnel folks with a dynamic turn at the Las Vegas Summer League, broke his left hand in the Pistons’ final preseason game on Oct. 24 and was initially expected to miss six weeks. But the multiple fractures to three fingers still hadn’t fully calcified when Stuckey was last X-rayed, two weeks ago at the six-week mark. That last bridge was crossed Thursday.
The Pistons held only a light optional workout Thursday, which means Stuckey’s first significant practice time will come on Saturday with the Pistons between home games Friday against Memphis and Sunday against Houston. Pistons coach Flip Saunders has said he would likely choose to have Stuckey participate in at least a few practices before activating him for games, though it’s possible Stuckey could be in uniform as early as Sunday.
Possible, but maybe not likely. From A. Sherrod Blakely:
But Saunders cautions to not look for him to be in the lineup immediately.
“Once he starts going, it’ll be at least a week or two before he’ll do anything more than that,” Saunders said.
Still, this should get interesting. Flip Murray has been getting DNP-CD’s left and right (six in the last eight games, to be precise). With Stuckey in uniform, will Murray even dress? Lindsey Hunter will have his playing time cut, but he’s worth keeping active because he can come into the game and provide 3-5 minutes of shutdown defense when the Pistons need a few stops. Once upon a time I thought Arron Afflalo would be the odd man out once Stuckey returned, but he seems to have earned a spot in the rotation.
As currently constructed, the Pistons are one of the deepest teams in the league, but with so many small and expiring contracts belonging to relatively disposable players (Murray, Brezec, Herrmann), a little breathing room under the luxury tax (~$1.7 million) plus a couple of trade exceptions (~$2 million, courtesy of the Nazr and Delfino deals), I could easily see Detroit pulling a three-for-one trade to pick up an impact player.
Or, if the Pistons opt to move those guys piecemeal, does anyone see the Warriors wanting Flip Murray? They just lost Troy Hudson to a potentially career-ending hip condition and could use a backup point — if Murray’s shoot-first, gamble-on-defense philosophy would fit in anywhere, it’s Golden State. Not sure who they have that Detroit might want, but they don’t seem high on Patrick O’Bryant — there’s probably a good reason for that, but I’d rather roll the dice on a young seven-footer who might have upside instead of holding onto Murray until he walks as a free agent.
The trade deadline is in two months. It’s going to be an interesting two months…
The best part about Stuckey breaking his hand is that he wasn’t confined to a couch, eating potato chips, and playing NBA Live all day (although I DID suggest a while back that he play a season as himself and average a triple double). He should be in good shape for the second half of the season! And I’m digging Afflalo. He still hasn’t found his identity yet on our stacked squad, but he’s working hard and getting there. I’d like to be able to go, “Afflalo just checked in. That means…” and then define what he’s going to do (lockdown D? Mid-range shooting? Slashing? Nice passing?)
i think he hasn’t found his identity cause he does all those things well. he’s athletic as anyone we’ve got, a better defnder than we could have possibly asked and he’s outplaying Jarvis Hayes in almost every aspect. Mostly, IMO he’s a great complimentary player, I think he makes any other four guys better in a way that not many on the team would.
ALSO, we need to learn to back off Tay’s shot attempts when he’s guarding someone exceptional. He can still handle the ball and attack, but his jump shot almost always dies when he has a particularly tough defensive assignment. I can’t help remembering we would’ve won the cleveland series last year if tay had been able to shoot his average.
The only thing the pistons lack is a big that can either make a shot in the paint and/or get fouled. Someone to help during those horrible scoring droughts that seem to happen to the Pistons in big games.
If we can pull this off within the next two months we will be in amazing shape and if not we will get one next year as a free agent
Otoh - Amir could be the one either now or in the future
I’m excited to see the last missing player in the squad, stuckey. i haven’t watched him play, but based on his stat in the summer league and in comparison being a better offensive threatt than affalo (who’s more of a defensive threatt) I can’t wait to see him play. One of the many things I love about the pistons is the excitement i feel when flip is about to bring a bench player…wheather if its, maxie, stuckey or amir! u never know what’s gonna happen!!!
matt, speaking of the warriors, the only thing that looks really interesting, or at least to me, that will fit (from the warriors)in our piston squad is matt barnes, who just signed another year deal for the warriors. i don’t know the details but maybe you can fill me in wheather he can be traded to another team the same season or not….if so, sending Murray, Brezec, Herrmann, would they take it? Brezec and Herrmann would provide size to them, then at least they can avoid hearing from barkley calling them “midgets”. somehow i see some potential on barnes as “bad boy” both on attitude and the way he plays…..other than that, we need another center IF Brezec and Herrmann are traded.
I think Afflalo’s identity is to play hard and get shots in the flow of the offense. He’s going to be a solid NBA starter. I see him being like Trenton Hassell or Bruce Bowen. The best comparison would be to say he’ll be a SG-version of Rick Fox.
Cheick Samb’s ceiling is higher than I thought it would be. My initial hope when he was drafted was that he would become like Diop. But, after seeing him play, I’m thinking more Marcus Camby. Thin, athletic shot-blocker with a serviceable offensive game.
I have no idea who to compare Maxiell too. He’s so unique. The only one I can think of is Barkley, but dare I make that comparison? No. Any thoughts?
Haven’t seen enough of Stuckey to say definitely but I’m hoping for a Deron Williams type game. Although, I don’t think he’s quite as good a shooter or ball handler yet.
As for Amir, I’m not sure who to compare him to either. Right now he seems like a less athletic Tyrus Thomas.
I know a guy who works for an NBA team. He told me Patrick O’Bryant had the worst workout of any player he had seen in 3 years. Apparently the guy couldn’t do a drop-step and finish with no defense being played. Pistons should avoid him at all costs.
I’m going to go with Chet, if even on gut instinct alone. I’d rather roll the dice on Brezec than mess with Patrick O’Bryant.
One thing that sticks out at me is that Afflalo has great confidence in his abilities. He is aggresive both offensively and defensively, and doesn’t appear to be tentative playing with veterans. I think he’s a keeper, just like Prince was when he was a rookie/sophomore.
Stuckey…hopefully I can say the same thing in 2 more months.
I hope the Pistons will have more faith in Walter HERRMANN than they had with Carlos DELFINO.
Both players were great talent should be allowed for more time play.
Why can’t Flip just dress Stuckey right away? Flip Murray apparently isn’t even getting burn in blow outs so might as well have him sit in a suit. That way if there is a blow out, Stuckey can get some burn with it not being a big deal that he hasn’t practiced.
i don’t know. cleared or not, that would be too risky for me. in practice they’ll try to avoid his hand, in a game, the other team won’t.
On a related note…
Joe D, please, for the love of all that is good and right, don’t sign C Webb.
Just had to get that off my chest.
Thanks. It was therapeutic.
Go Pistons.
Is anyone opposed to C Webb being on the team if he gets DNP-CDs more often than he gets to play? I want him on the team with that caveat. I think he’s earned the chance to win a title in a Detroit jersey as long as he’s kept in his place on the squad.
Whoo i was getting worried we were gonna have to start sending Stuckey some milk. Glad to hear he will be back relatively soon.
ughhh this is up
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3163962
Source: Webber considering return to play for Pistons
Course it could just be Webber leaking his christmas list since he see’s the pistons with some cap space. Of course i have to say this doesnt bother me as long as he does NOT take ANY of Maxiell’s minutes and hopefully none of Amir’s. Maybe just come in and dress and player-coach. It would be kinda cool to see him get a ring with the Pistons as long as the above conditions are met.
I don’t mind the return of CWebb, just not to the starting line up. You bring him off the bench. He’d be pretty damn effective with Nazr minutes.
Speaking of Delfino. Tony Allen certainly pulled a Delfino last night.
NO TO CWEBB. The team is better served giving Amir any crumbs that Sheed/Maxiell/McDyess don’t eat up. Even if it means losing some games.
CWebb coming back would be great, especially if the team can play with the same revitalized energy as when he first came to Detroit. He would help the bench significantly with his passing and post abilities. Maxiell will now be on the receiving end of those sweet CWebb passes and his scoring average might increase. CWebb playing 10-12 minutes per game would be nice.
Bench:
CWebb/Amir
Maxiell
Stuckey/Hunter
Afflalo
Hayes
Brezec, Hermann, and Flip Murray will be traded guaranteed, even though I hate to see Flip go since he’s been playing decently.
Darshan: “Even if it means losing some games”.
I couldn’t agree more. I’d gladly shed some meaningless losses just to get some development for Amir, Afflalo and Stuckey. We got first seed last season, look where that got us.
The preseason ends in April for Detroit.
In fact, I’ll take losses to Sacramento, LA, and Portland all day. I’m not as keen with tossing games to Houston and Utah, but let’s make the West Coast trips our youth hoops lab. As long as we keep it out of the Eastern Conference….
I wasn’t paying close attention so this caught me off guard when I realized it today: Utah has lost eight of nine and is in third place behind the Nuggets and Trail Blazers.
Look, and I don’t think I can be clear enough about this here… every single living person in the Golden State organization regrets drafting Patrick O’Bryant… all of them. Remember when that whack job from Oakland was on here trying to argue that we should trade the Warrior’s Sheed (nevermind that Wallace’s legs would fall off at the speed they play, whatever)? When I called O’Bryant a huge bust and such garbage we didn’t want him, he DIDN’T argue. Yet he DID try to say Harrington is about even with Sheed in value… see what I’m saying?
If even the COMPLETELY insane fanbase in Oakland has ZERO hope for this guy… we don’t want him.
Quick Darshan:
Speaking of Delfino. Tony Allen certainly pulled a Delfino last night.
NO TO CWEBB. The team is better served giving Amir any crumbs that Sheed/Maxiell/McDyess don’t eat up. Even if it means losing some games.
…
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks you.
Now that we got rid of Nazr I am that much more impatient to get rid of murray.
agreed, as long as cwebb is mostly dnp-cd’s i’m ok with it. to think he can “revitalize” anything is delusional.
Now that Stuckey is activated you can officially start the Flip Murray death watch.
Really glad to see that Afflalo is winning some of you over. I know a lot of people thought he was a dubious pick at the time, but all of the comments about him above in this thread sound like they’re describing the player we knew and appreciated at UCLA. The Bruins, even with freshman of the year Kevin Love at center and more experience at both guard positions, have a long way to go to reach where they were when he was on the team. He not only did his things well (lockdown defense, clutch shooting) but he made everyone else on the team play better. It’s good to see he’s finding his way in detroit. Go Pistons!