Is Rodney Stuckey again going to lead the team at more than 36 minutes per game? Not likely. Image courtesy of Yardbarker.

Virtually every article from Pistons’ media day focused on one thing — health. Richard Hamilton is healthy and ready to contribute. Iron man Tayshaun Prince has shaken off his lingering back troubles and is healthy once again. Charlie Villanueva is ready to atone for last year’s lackluster season because he’s no longer struggling with plantar fasciitis. Ben Gordon’s got his legs back and is ready to be the overpowering scorer from his Chicago days. Tracy McGrady is supposedly going to be Arnie Kander’s latest reclamation project.

Everyone’s healthy! Great! Only one problem: everyone’s healthy.

What I mean is that there are only a limited number of minutes to dole out, and there is a surplus of players who feel like they deserve them. Oh yeah, another problem: One of the benefits of last season’s plague of injuries was that the Pistons’ rookies played quite well, and on a team that doesn’t expect to contend, I’m sure many fans, and many within the organization, would love to see the young guys continue to develop — especially rookie Greg Monroe.

My analysis shows that there is an “expectation” among players of 320 minutes of playing time and only 240 minutes available. Assuming we want a healthy team all year, minutes are going to have to be cut, players are going to fall out of the regular rotation and veterans aren’t going to get the minutes they feel they so richly deserve..  (more…)