Kuester Working with Stuckey, Bynum on Point Guard Position

Stuckey, Bynum engage in frequent dialogue with Kuester
Point to Point
by Keith Langlois

As a guy whose buzzer-beater carried Georgia Tech to the 2004 NCAA championship game, Will Bynum cringes when he sees all the memorabilia of ACC rival North Carolina adorning John Kuester’s office. And he sees the inside of Kuester’s office a lot.

“I know all the pictures and everything in his office,” Bynum said after Monday’s practice, when this time it was Rodney Stuckey’s turn to get another lecture in Kuester 101. “All his Carolina stuff, Dean Smith. I’ve been in there a little too much.”

Actually, Bynum and Stuckey don’t mind at all. They both clearly enjoy their relationship with Kuester, who has struck a balance of unrelenting positivity with an eye toward critical review of every possession.

“He’s always on me, but that’s a good thing,” Bynum said. “When a coach is not saying much to you, that’s when you should be worried. When he’s always on me, I know he wants me to get better and better. I’ll take it.”

“He’s a good guy,” Stuckey said. “He understands the game, so he’s always just trying to make me a better player, telling me where to be and what to do. He’s always positive. Whenever we make mistakes, he’s never getting down on us. He always just encourages us to get better and there’s always the next play.”

Kuester makes heavy use of game tape as an instructional tool.

“He’s always on me about film,” Bynum said. “About body language out there on the court. Teams might not have scored on that possession when you’re watching film, but he’s still on me about the small things, about being in the right position. I could be an inch or two from being in the right position and he’s making sure I know I’m right there. That’s big for me.”

“We have two young point guards that are trying to get a sense of what I want accomplished,” Kuester said. “They’ve worked real hard and they’re the focal point in our game plan, offensively and defensively. There’s a lot of dialogue that way.”

While Kuester encourages his players to exploit their one-on-one skills, he said in passing after Sunday’s win over Philadelphia that Stuckey must be mindful of shot selection, especially in regard to game circumstances. Stuckey’s shooting percentage through seven games is .365, and he was the last player to leave the floor Monday, working as he always does with player development coach Steve Hetzel on his jump shot.

Stuckey has averaged 17.5 attempts per game in the six games since Rip Hamilton has been sidelined with an ankle sprain and that’s probably a few too many. But with Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, who’s missed all but the first three games with a ruptured disc in his lower back, both out of the lineup, Stuckey is cognizant of the need for him to be more of a scorer.

“Probably around 15 (attempts) would be good for me,” he said. “I think right now we have a couple of players out, so I have to look to shoot a lot more. Once we get them back – I don’t know, but hopefully soon – it’ll probably go down a little bit.

“I’m not worried at all. We’ve got a lot more games left. It will go up. I’m getting more comfortable each and ever day. Whatever the defense gives me, I’ve got to take it. I’m going to be open a lot more in my mid-range. Instead of looking it off, I’ve got to take it and that’s what I’ve been working on, shooting mid-range jumpers.”

The Pistons are last in the NBA in assists per game at 14.4 with Stuckey averaging 3.7 and Bynum 4.1. Some of that is the Pistons doing their best to control the tempo while they’re shorthanded and some of it is an inordinate number of one-on-one possessions to take advantage of the strengths of Stuckey, Bynum and Gordon to create their own offense.

“I just think whoever gets the ball, we’re just attacking because we see something,” Stuckey said. “Part of it is our offense and some of it is we see we can attack, so we just do it.”

“It’s a learning process,” Bynum said. “In due time, our assist numbers will definitely go up. We just have to learn to play with the guys. And, you know, we’ve got some incredible one-on-one players – that’s probably it, too.”

“We don’t have selfish players,” Kuester said. “That’s the one thing I will say straight out. We’ve got guys who want to make plays and are trying to help each other out. We would like to get better in that area, no question. But we’re not selfish, that’s for sure.”