Rodney Stuckey was waived by the Indiana Pacers today, but fans should remember his best days with the team when he was fully healthy.
Rodney Stuckey never gave up on the Indiana Pacers. However, Stuckey’s body started giving up on him a few years ago.
In his first season with the Pacers, we celebrated Godney Stuckey, the name we have him when he had his best nights. In his first season in Indiana — when Paul George was still on the mend — Stuckey averaged 12.6 points, 3.1 assists, and 3 rebounds a game.
In that season, Stuckey scored 20+ points nine times, and broke 30+ points three times. He played well night in and night out, but there were games where he was just an unstoppable monster. In his best night with the Pacers, he scored 34 points on 13 of 19 shooting, including 6 of 9 from beyond the arc.
On night’s where he didn’t score 20 or 30, Stuckey left and impact outside of the box score. Even last year, he had night’s where he just made big plays when Indiana needed them. Good things happened when he was on the court.
But then injuries started to be the for Rodney.
In his first season with the Pacers he played in 71 games. But last year he played in 65 games and in this season only appeared in 35. That only 59.5% of the Pacers games in the last two seasons.
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Once you start looking at his game logs, you notice he only had two Godney-ish games this season. His best days were two seasons ago, and he rarely touched the face of Godney after his ankle injury last January. According to PointAfter, Stuckey was statistically speaking the biggest drag on the Pacers last season.
He said he felt healthy coming into this season, but just three games in he was missing time. He missed 22 games between December and early February. He had a good showing in Indiana’s road win over the Houston Rockets earlier this year, but hadn’t scored in double-digits in almost a month.
In the end, his final season with the Indiana Pacers is the worst of his career so far. He shot only 37.3% from the field this season while scoring 7.2 points a game.
In the end, it is hard to blame Stuckey the man for his decline, but it seems his body couldn’t keep up with the aggressive style of play that earned him the nickname Fullback Rodney Stuckey from me.
Next: The Costs of Rebuilding on the Fly
It is unfortunate that Rodney Stuckey’s career as a Pacer ends in his pragmatic cutting from the team, but Indiana Pacers fans should fondly remember the nights when he was Godney Stuckey.