Pistons' challenge: Getting Rodney Stuckey on same page with team's coach

Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey made it clear more than once that he was looking forward to the end of the 2010-11 season.

"It is what it is," he said after a game in March when asked about his role coming off the bench.
"Fourteen games left. Whatever I have to do, I’m going to do."

He made similar comments following a late-season loss to Boston.

"Six games left," he said. "That’s it. I can survive for six games."

But you have to wonder whether Stuckey was counting down the games remaining in a stressful season or the games he had left remaining with a coach he clearly does not want to play for.

The Pistons had their share of drama last season, but of all the malcontents on the roster, Stuckey was the "malcontentiest."

Stuckey clashed with Pistons coach John Kuester from the start of the season (ignored him during a stoppage in play on Nov. 3) to the end (refused to re-enter a game on April 1). He was replaced in the starting lineup (clashed with Kuester in practice) and benched (missed a shootaround) in between.

Stuckey is a restricted free agent, so he doesn’t have much control over his fate (assuming the next collective bargaining agreement is similar to the current one). Even if he wants to leave, the Pistons have the option of matching an offer he gets elsewhere and keeping him. Joe Dumars has said he wants Stuckey back.

Of course, Stuckey could agree to the qualifying offer the Pistons are required to extend to him if they want to re-sign him. That would pay him about $3.9 million next season and allow him to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2012.

That seems extremely unlikely. It is much more likely that the Pistons will retain him with a lucrative multi-year deal, whether he first signs an offer sheet elsewhere or re-signs directly with the Pistons. The Pistons appear very unlikely to let him walk for nothing.