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Pistons' Stuckey fueled by new mentality, not free agency

The Detroit Pistons and their 19-27 record are hovering dangerously close to missing the playoffs for a fifth consecutive year, but Rodney Stuckey is holding it together pretty well.

As Sam Amick of USA TODAY reports, the solid play isn't because he'll be an unrestricted free agent for the first time on July 1.

"It's just mentally, man, mentally," he said. "Mentally, there's been no stress. I would say last year it was all mental, not even for me but just for the whole team. It was tough last year, not even physically but mentally it was tough. I really don't have to worry about the mental part of the game anymore."

Stuckey is up to 13.9 points per game on a career-high 45 percent shooting this season, third in the league among regular reserves. He's happy to be under first-year coach Maurice Cheeks with the clear directive that he'll be coming off the bench.

"Mo has been pretty good at letting us know to go out there and do what we do and go and play basketball," he said. "He's been pretty consistent of telling us that, and it's been helping."

The guard didn't elaborate to Amick on the specific challenges of the 2012-13 campaign, but noted that the 29-53 season was "mentally tough for a lot of people."

Stuckey admitted that the current roster is still trying to get onto the same page, but its state of mind is an improved one.

"I know our record is not what it should be (now), but we're definitely in a better place. Definitely in a better state of mind. And that's important," he said. "I feel happy, feel relieved. We've got a great group of guys. The coaches are good, so it's been good so far and now we've just got to try to come out and execute better, play better defense and hopefully we start winning more games."

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