Rodney Stuckey? His name may just as well be Rodney White...

The Pistons claimed they needed immediate help from their 1st pick in the NBA draft. Yet they pick a kid, Rodney Stuckey, who only spent all of 2 seasons at Eastern freaking Washington? Eastern Washington? This has Rodney White written all over it, and we know how well that turned out.

Several times tonight I've heard Rodney Stuckey compared to...Dwayne Wade? That's the local MSM buying into the Pistons' spin, as they can't really say anything about him. Why buy into the Pistons publicity? The MSM can't say much of anything of their own about him, because no one on God's green earth has ever seen Stuckey play! No one had ever seen Darko play either. That worked out real well...

Give the spin a rest. When I hear comparisons to Dwayne Wade, the red flag goes up. How on earth can you compare him to an all-world player like Wade? That's silly, let alone unfair to Stuckey.

Stuckey made his name playing in the Big Sky Conference. Christ almighty, I could put up numbers playing in the Big Sky. Sure, Stuckey scored 24 PPG in his sophomore season. But here's a sample of the teams he played...

Lewis & Clark
Evergreen St.
Northern Colorado
Sacramento St.
Montana St.

Eastern Washington finished 12-14 playing such esteemed directional school competition. If Stuckey is comparable to //cough// Dwayne Wade, he should have been putting up 40 a game.

Just add the following together with me. Stuckey is a non qualifier, whom then had no choice but to go to a small time school, playing in a Mickey Mouse conference, then spending only 2 years at said small time school. It doesn't add up to Stuckey being the first guard off the bench, which is what the Pistons need. What it does add up to is a project whose season long line will mostly read "DNP: Coaches decision".

If the Pistons get anything out this guy next season, I'll be shocked beyond belief. Flip Murray has nothing to worry about, and that's a bad thing for the Pistons.

I hope to Hell that I'm wrong, as I'm far from being a personnel expert. The Pistons obviously see something in him. But they also saw something in Mateen Cleaves and Rodney White, so I'm not sure they should get the benefit of the doubt.

On the surface, it's not a very impressive pick. Considering this pick is what the Pistons received in return for Darko Millicic, it's even less impressive.

Joe Dumars parlayed the 2nd overall pick of the 2003 draft into unused salary cap room, and Rodney Stuckey. Color me unimpressed.

Addendum 10:30 pm: The Pistons just took Arron Afflalo from UCLA at with the 27th pick. Another shooting guard? What the Hell?

Why take Affalo after taking Stuckey at 15? You have Rip Hamilton as the starter, so you pick 2 players who play his position in the 1st round? Makes no sense. What about Alex Acker? He's tearing it up overseas, I thought the Pistons were high on him. Honestly, how many shooting guards do they need?

I have absolutely no idea what the Pistons are thinking. Not a clue.