Pistons now super-small

The Detroit Pistons are struggling and playing ineffective basketball lately. Recently, coach Michael Curry made point guard Rodney Stuckey a starter, shifting undersized Allen Iverson to his natural shooting guard position and bumping Richard Hamilton up as a very undersized small forward. The Detroit Free Press (Jamie Samuelsen) blogs:

Michael Curry had to try something. There is a lot of time left and things can still work out, but some early season trends are rather disturbing. The Pistons have already lost to the Timberwolves and the Wizards. Those are two teams playing so poorly that they’ve already fired their respective coaches. That’s saying something. Curry’s move is bold, but I don’t like it. It totally depletes the bench scoring, which has been inconsistent in the early going. Maybe they thought that Arron Afflalo could be the prime shooting threat off the bench, after all he had 17 against the Knicks the other day. Last night, he had nothing in 18 minutes. The Stuckey move reflects a clear discomfort with having Iverson play the point. He and Rip Hamilton aren’t gelling in the same backcourt, so they need a point. And the best point guard on the roster is Stuckey.

It’ll be fun to see the new, super-small Pistons and seeing how they can compete. Watch their next couple of games.