Detroit Pistons: Rodney Stuckey Injury Clarifies Backcourt Rotation … For Now

As of Wednesday, Detroit Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks was faced with the problem of finding playing time for five rotation-worthy guards without wanting to play more than four regularly.

Cheeks told NBA.com that it’s simply a problem of mathematics when it comes to juggling new acquisitions Brandon Jennings and Chauncey Billups with holdovers Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum and first-round draft choice Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

"“How can you (play all five)? I don’t think you can do it. It wouldn’t be fair to the guys that are playing.”"

That conversation took place at Wednesday’s practice. Then Stuckey simplified the equation, at least temporarily later that day when he broke his right thumb when he got it caught in the door of his vehicle.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Stuckey will he surgery on Friday to repair a fracture of the distal phalanx of his right thumb. The distal phalanx is the small bone at the tip of the thumb.

There is no timetable for Stuckey’s return and the Pistons open the regular season on Oct. 30 against the Washington Wizards.

Thursday night’s preseason game against the defending champion Miami Heat didn’t do a lot to answer the rotation question. Stuckey was out and neither Billups nor Jennings played. Jennings was out with what was called discomfort from a wisdom tooth and Billups, at age 37, is having his minutes managed carefully in the preseason.

That left Bynum and small forward Kyle Singler to start at the guard spots with only Caldwell-Pope available in reserve (second-round pick Peyton Siva has been sidelined with a calf injury).

Bynum scored a team-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting while logging 46 minutes for the short-handed Pistons. Caldwell-Pope came off the bench to play 26 minutes and scored nine points while shooting just 2-for-8, 1-for-5 from deep.

In Tuesday’s preseason opener, a 91-69 laugher against outmanned Israeli club Maccabi Haifa, Billups and Jennings started, with Stuckey and Caldwell-Pope coming off the bench and Bynum out with a minor hip injury he sustained in practice on Monday.

Stuckey got the most playing time, 30 minutes, but didn’t do much with it, scoring five points on 1-of-6 shooting, missing both of his 3-point attempts. Caldwell-Pope also struggled in his 25 minutes, going 1-for-12 and finishing with just two points. He was 0-for-6 from 3-point range, but did haul down seven rebounds and nabbed two steals.

In 23 minutes, Jennings scored 15 points on 4-for-8 shooting, 1-for-4 from downtown, and made all six of his free throws while contributing three assists and five steals. Billups, in 19 minutes, had two assists and scored two points on 0-of-4 shooting.

Here’s one of Jennings’ assists, a nice lob to Andre Drummond down low:

Jennings is likely a lock at the point—the Pistons are paying him $32 million over the next four years, after all, and gave up a promising prospect in Brandon Knight to get Jennings from the Milwaukee Bucks this summer. Billups gives the Pistons a veteran presence in the backcourt that Detroit has lacked pretty much since Billups was traded to the Denver Nuggets five years ago.

Cheeks, a former All-Star point guard in the 1980s with the Philadelphia 76ers, would prefer to keep the guard rotation at four.

"“They say when you get tired, raise your hand. You’ll go back in. No, that’s not true. If a guy’s doing well, you leave him in the game.”"

It appeared that Stuckey had a leg up on the rest of the competition, based on Cheeks’ comments on Wednesday.

"“All I can say is that Stuckey has been … very good. Very conscientious of the things we’ve been doing. It would be easy for me to say that he’s probably been the best defensively, in terms of knowing where to be, what to do. Defensively, he’s been very good.”"

But now that Stuckey will be sidelined for awhile, the onus is on Bynum and, in particular, Caldwell-Pope to step up and fill those backup backcourt roles. Given that Cheeks wants the guards to extend the defensive pressure all the way up the floor, Billups can’t be counted on for 36 or 38 minutes a night at his age. Caldwell-Pope was a prodigious scorer in college at Georgia, so it’s logical to think that his shooting will improve as he gets more familiar with the pro game. After all, it’s hard to imagine he would continue to shoot 15 percent (3-for-20 through two preseason games).