Dwight Buycks

Buycks started last year on a two-way contract with the Pistons, yet worked his way up to a full contract midseason, and ended up averaging 14.7 minutes per game between January and March. He was however only a stop-gap solution as the Pistons ran out of ball handlers, and was waived to open this summer in favour of Jose Calderon. Buycks's aggressive driving game nevertheless saw him provide a useful scoring option alongside and around Andre Drummond's dribble hand-offs, and while his age (turning 30 in March) does not convey the upside that a fringe NBA guard would ideally have, he does have least have some citeable experience now.

Dwight Buycks
PG/SG - 6’3, 190lbs - 29 years old - 3 years of experience

A very odd recipient of a two-way contract considering his age and NBA experience to date, Buycks nevertheless took one such deal from the Pistons last summer, perhaps in anticipation of them having a crisis of ball handlers. If so, good read.

With Reggie Jackson out for the meat of the season, Buycks took the third-string ball handling spot away from Langston Galloway, and never relinquished it. A strong and extremely aggressive scorer, Buycks lacks some nous and some control at times, but sheer bloody-mindedness can often get it done if you are strong and athletic enough. And Buycks is.

Historically not the best shooter, the slightly ball-dominant Buycks hits enough pull-ups from three-point range and the mid-range areas to need defending out there. This in turn opens up the drive, where he does what he does best. Unabashedly getting in the paint, Buycks once there can finish (pretty well, considering) or find a roller or cutter. He is not the pound-it-up-top, work-it-around point guard of the olden days. He is the get-into-the-paint-then-figure-it-out point guard of the AAU circuit.

There is a fair bit that Buycks doesn’t do. Applying ball pressure on opposing ball handlers would be one such thing. Reading defensive plays better. Taking high percentage looks. Not shooting all the time. But he does at least do something out there. And something, in this instance, was what was needed.

Player Plan: Unguaranteed minimum salary contract for next season. Generous guarantee date allows for a good evaluation time before making a decision. I would expect the decision to be waived, though, with number kept on file.

[...] Previous installments of the Buzz Williams Experience have seen Marquette be primarily guard reliant, and true to form, they still have some good ones. In addition to the aforementioned Johnson-Odom, prize recruit Vander Blue can defend any guard of any description, creating quite the defensive backcourt pairing. It's an even stronger defensive guard lineup when accounting for Junior Cadougan, a sophomore who nobly declined an entirely justified medical redshirt last season in order to play sparse minutes in a nothing season, earning brownie points and acclaim for his magnanimity. Both Blue and Cadougan are good, versatile, interested defenders, and Cadougan also thrives as a playmaker and facilitator. At this stage, however, neither can make a shot. The backcourt scoring therefore is built around Johnson-Odom, as well as fellow JuCo transfer Dwight Buycks (Bikes), who has emerged as a three point threat as a senior and plays some decent defense of his own.