NBA players spend their offseasons differently. After a long grind and preparing for another, they all take time to chillax, but anyone worth the NBA uni they don make it a point to get some work in preparation for the upcoming season. In a series of offseason conversations we'll be having with NBA players, we'll see what some of them are up to between June and October. This week we talk to Rodney Stuckey of the Detroit Pistons.
With 16.6 ppg and 4.8 apg in 67 starts for the Pistons, Stuckey had a bit of a breakthrough third season for Detroit. Much like the man who drafted him out Eastern Washington University, Joe Dumars, Stuckey is a combo guard able to fill the basket or guide a team. With his less-than-stellar .405 field-goal percentage and 2.2 turnovers per game, Stuckey has some things to work on in both areas. He's putting in the hours this offseason to better areas of his game and promises improvement in '10-11 from himself and his Pistons.
What have you been working on this offseason to improve your game?
I just got in better shape. I lost a little bit of weight. Mainly during the summer time I just try to get a lot of shots up, that’s just my main focus. I think everything else will take care of itself. Just making my jump shot more consistent would help me out a lot more.
This upcoming season will be the first time in your career you’ve entered the year with the same coach from the previous season. How’s that affected your development as a player?
I think it’s tough, man. When you have three different coaches in three different years, they all want you to do three different things. So it’s been alright, but it’s just something that you gotta look through and I think I’m handling my situation pretty well. We’ll see how everything goes this year.
Entering your fourth season, have you spoken with Joe Dumars or Coach Kuester about emerging as a leader on the court—especially if the team trades away a vet like Rip Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince?
Yeah that’s one thing I’ll be doing a lot more is being vocal, I think it’s just something that I have to do a lot more. That’s just something that my team needs me to do so I think I’ll have a bigger role being more vocal and being a leader on the court.
Have you done anything differently to prepare for that?
No, the only thing I can do is, once stuff happens, I just gotta speak my mind and say what I gotta say so the team can hear me. So it’s just all about me opening my mouth and saying what I have to say and that’s pretty much what I want to be doing this upcoming year.
Did you pick up anything from Chauncey Billups when you played together?
Yeah, Chauncey was a great dude. He was just an excellent guy not just on the court but off the court. He was always telling me to play my game and to be aggressive. Every time I made a mistake he was telling me “stick with it” and stuff like that, which was really good. Overall he was just a good guy. I wish he would’ve stayed a little bit longer but that’s part of how the NBA is I guess. It’s a business so it is what it is.
Are you helping out any of the young players out? You guys have quite a few this year.
Yeah we got a lot of young guys I think our young guys did pretty good in the Summer League, watching Austin [Daye] and DaJuan [Summers] and Jonas [Jerebko] and [Greg] Monroe and Terrico White. They all did a pretty good job so you know we’re gonna be a really young team. Hopefully we just come in with the mindset of just work. And hopefully if we stay healthy I think we’ll be all right. On paper we have a pretty good team.
Were you down in Las Vegas for the Summer League?
Yeah I was down there with the team just practicing with them and working out and stuff like that.
What impressed you most about first-round pick Greg Monroe?
He’s an excellent passer. His IQ for the game is really high. He’s a big body, 6-10, 6-11 so that’s what we needed. He’s only gonna get better as a player and I think once he starts with Arnie [Kander, the team’s strength-and-conditioning coach] to get his foot speed up and all that stuff he’s gonna be a pretty good player for us.
What do the Pistons have to do to get back into the Playoffs?
Like I said on paper we have a good team. Me, Rip, Tay, Charlie V, Ben Gordon, you add in all the young guys, we got Ben Wallace. If we just come together and play together as one and play on the same page then we’ll be all right. Trying to get our chemistry right and mesh it all together is gonna be the most important part to see what we can all do with it. I think we’ll be all right.
What’s it like taking it to the hole against Ben Wallace in practice?
Ahh usually I’m on his team so I don’t have to worry about that [laughs]. But I’ll tell you one thing about Ben Wallace; he’s just a good guy. Last year was my first year playing with him. It’s crazy. I don’t know his situation and I don’t know if other teams didn’t want him or not, but the guy can still play, man. You guys saw last year. For how old he is, he’s grabbing 8, 9 boards a game and plays excellent defense. Why wouldn’t you want that on the court to help your team out? So I’m just happy to have him on our team because without him last year I think we would’ve lost some of those games that we won. It’s that fire and that work ethic. He’s just a good guy overall.
There’s been talk of Chris Paul wanting to team up with a superstar. Are you a fan of this or do you think it hurts the integrity of the game?
I just think that’s probably what a lot of teams are gonna start doing now since they have the power to do it, I think why not do it. But yeah I think it hurts. I just think that if you’re one of the best players in the NBA I would’ve always thought that you would want to compete with the best players in the NBA. I could see you teaming up with like one superstar at the most. It’s just everybody trying to get on the same team is just too much. But that’s what you could do nowadays. It is what it is.
Keeping it old school, that’s what we like to hear.
I just think back in the day—you guys have been reading what MJ and those guys have been saying—a lot of things just are different nowadays.
You have a little D-Wade in your game, is he someone you look up to and try to model your game after?
I don’t really model my game after him but coming out of college he was my favorite player. I just loved watching him play. I think he’s just a tremendous player. He’s really athletic, versatile, and really aggressive, that’s why you know who he is today.
Is that where the number came from?
Yeah that’s why I’m #3, it’s my favorite number, too.
Growing up, who did you like to watch?
My era growing up it was the Chicago bulls era so I was watching MJ.
Do you consider yourself a true point or more of a combo guard?
Man, I just like to play basketball. I think nowadays there’s no such thing as a true point guard. It really doesn’t matter. If I need to play the 1, I’ll play the 1. If I need to play the 2, I’ll play the 2. I’m just a combo guard; it doesn’t really matter to me.
What’s the feeling in the locker room about the possible lockout of the 2011-2012 season? Are guys talking about it at all?
No we really haven’t been talking about but I think we all have heard about it and we’ll just wait until that time comes. We have one more season to prepare for it. Hopefully it doesn’t happen. Hopefully we can come together and figure something out and I think we will.
Does that place a larger emphasis on this coming season?
I think every season’s important, you know you try to go out and prove yourself. I think each and every season you try to improve and get better so I think every season’s important.
What are some of your pregame rituals?
It all depends on the schedule but, wake up eat breakfast, go to shoot around and then come home and sleep. And then I usually wake up and eat some kind of chicken or some seafood or some sort. That’s pretty much it, man. Oh I gotta eat pineapple before every game.
Gotta have that fruit.
Yeah I don’t know why, I love pineapples.
How’ve you spend most of your free time this offseason?
Yeah pretty much just working out. My hometown is Seattle. I’ve been back home you know working out chilling, spending a lot of time with the family. I got a little daughter that’s 5 so I try to see her as much as I can. Because she’s getting to that age where she’s about to start kindergarten so it’s gonna be little bit tougher to see her throughout the season. That’s pretty much it. It’s been a lot of work. Spend a lot of time with the family, relax, you know the season’s a grind so you gotta relax as much as you can before it starts.
So that’s your favorite part of the offseason, just getting away from it all?
Yeah just relaxing and being lazy, and spending time with family and friends.
They say you look like Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent.
[laughs] Man I get that a lot. Been getting that since I was in like high school [laughs]. People say I do, I do. I actually met him once he’s a pretty good guy. Really good guy.
Got any other NBA/Celeb look-alikes off the top of your head?
Man there’s probably a lot. I don’t know there is some though [laughs].
Can you give us one?
Let’s see. You think Shannon Brown looks like Chris Brown?
All right fair enough.
Yeah...you could see it a little bit.
What’s the worst pun someone’s made about your last name? No one’s ever called you something like Rubber Stuckey have they?
Ahh. Let me think. Nah to tell you the truth no one’s really said anything like that about my last name.
Offseason Chat: Rodney Stuckey
