Thumbs up in early returns on lineup switch

The sample size is still too small to draw ironclad conclusions about the genius of inserting Rodney Stuckey in the Pistons' starting lineup, but so far, so good. Through three games, the numbers of Stuckey, Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson suggest the Pistons are on the verge of becoming the dynamic offensive team Joe Dumars envisioned when he pulled the Iverson-Chauncey Billups blockbuster two games into the season.

Hamilton is averaging 25 points and shooting 54 percent in those three games, up from 16.3 and 43 percent prior to the lineup switch. Iverson's scoring average is virtually the same pre- and post-switch, but his efficiency is up significantly. A 39 percent shooter before Stuckey joined the lineup, Iverson is shooting 50 percent over the last three games and had a 12-assist performance in one game. And his 20-point game at Charlotte on Saturday was his highest-scoring game in his last 11.

Stuckey, too, has seen his numbers jump to 14.7 points and 9.7 assists while shooting a remarkable 68 percent.

The win-win to the move is that while it has appeared to have liberating effects on Hamilton and Iverson and allowed them to flourish by playing off of Stuckey and even Tayshaun Prince in his unique role as a playmaking power forward, it has emboldened Stuckey to be the take-charge leader that's easier to achieve as a starter than a sixth man.

Without the burden of being a point guard needed for his scoring punch on a second unit not dripping with scorers, Stuckey hasn't had to force scoring chances out of highly contested shots at the rim, instead probing those openings more judiciously. And with every game, Stuckey flashes eye-catching bullet passes that must make NBA scouts who viewed him as strictly a shooting guard cringe.

"With Stuckey at the point, it frees up Allen and Rip from having to initiate the offense a lot of times," Michael Curry said after Monday's practice. "We want them to be able to initiate sets at times, but not all the time and maybe not all the time at the beginning. Stuck does a great job of running sets, putting guys in position to score and I also like Stuckey starting out on the ball defensively."

In the first quarters of the three games since Stuckey became a starter, the Pistons have held teams to 17.7 points a game and have led after one quarter by an average of 10.7 points.

Tayshaun Prince's numbers have gone the other way - he's averaging 6.7 points and shooting 34 percent, compared to 15.1 and 45 percent pre-switch - but his shot attempts per game haven't been affected much (11.9-10.7) and it's more likely a bad shooting weekend (7 of 19 against Indiana and Charlotte) more than anything.

As Curry said after Prince's 3 of 12 against Indiana, in which Prince had a number of open jump shots rim out, "Tay had great looks tonight. If Tay has those looks tomorrow, he'll go 8 for 12 or 9 for 12." He didn't, but nobody is concerned about Prince - at least not coach or player. Prince, in fact, seems to be embracing the added responsibilities of being the de facto point guard at times when Stuckey is out of the game and moving to power forward to start halves.

"I'm at the point right now where whatever can get us on a winning streak here, we're going to keep it that way," he said. "Me being at the four has been creating things for Rip, for Stuckey and for Allen. So if that's going to work, we're going to stick with it."

When Curry considered the lineup switch, he did it fully believing it would benefit all three guards offensively. Defensively, he knew Wallace was fully capable of guarding at either interior position. He liked having Stuckey on the ball and moving Iverson off of it. And he saw enough of Hamilton defending small forwards last season to be confident of that matchup. The one that had him a little concerned was Prince guarding bigger, stronger power forwards.

"Sometimes bigger and heavier guys, they will cause Tay a problem," Curry said. But in those games - perhaps one like this Friday's with Utah, if Carlos Boozer is back from his thigh injury by then - "our first sub will be another big and bump Tay back to the three." And even if moving Prince to power forward lessens his opportunities to post up against smaller threes, with "some of those bigger guys, Tay is able to (isolate) from the elbow or get into pick and rolls. So I like what he can do because of that, plus I think at the four Tay really rebounds the ball well for us."

To finish most games, Curry sees Prince more often at his more customary small forward position with Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess up front to put scoring pressure at both spots on the opposition. In the backcourt? Interesting answer: "It's a hell of a dilemma, but I cherish it that at the end of games, you're looking at three for the two perimeter guys - Rip, Stuckey and AI, whoever is rolling."

It's a measure of the confidence Curry has in Stuckey, and the belief that to be the team Curry feels they can become it will pay to accelerate the second-year point guard's development, that Stuckey is a candidate to finish games over either the player who's led the Pistons in scoring for six straight seasons or the player with the third-highest scoring average in NBA history.

"We're going to have a good guy sometimes sit out the last six minutes of the fourth quarter or the whole fourth quarter sometimes," Curry said. "That's just how it's going to be. It doesn't mean that guy isn't playing well. It just means that we've got a really deep team, especially in certain areas. On the perimeter we're really deep. If teams are big, we're going to need Dice and Sheed out there. If Dice isn't out there, we'll just go with our starting lineup and finish games like that."

He's right. Not a bad dilemma.

---

Questions and comments on Keith's posts can be submitted via the Pistons Mailbag. Click here to submit your question.

Click here to return to Pistons.com