Rodney Stuckey (photo. Tom McKenzie)

First and foremost, let’s hope everything goes well in Jeff Green‘s surgery and subsequent rehab from heart surgery. As we wrote yesterday, Green is undergoing the procedure on Jan. 9 after an aortic aneurysm was detected in his physical, and will miss the entire season. Because he failed the physical, his $9 million contract is now voided as well. As for the Celtics (Why do these things always seem to happen to them?), we always got on Green for not being aggressive enough, but now that he’s gone, it’s another major blow to their depth. Doc Rivers has been great at managing his older stars minutes, but with this shortened season upon us, what’s he going to do? He’s losing bodies … After balking at a deal worth somewhere around $40-45 million last week with Detroit, Rodney Stuckey seemed like he was on his way to taking the Pistons’ qualifying offer and trying free agency again next summer as an unrestricted free agent. Stuckey has been overshooting his value during this whole period, and never figured to get the money from Detroit that he wanted, and yet finally, the two sides agreed on a three-year deal worth $25 million yesterday. Seems a little odd right? Our best guess is that while Detroit loves him – more like Joe Dumars loves him – they don’t love him enough to give him a massive long-term deal at the price he wants. Stuckey doesn’t want to be too risky and put everything on free agency next summer. So the two sides met in the middle: Detroit gets their man for at least another three years and Stuckey gets to line himself up for another shot for a big deal down the road. Stuckey has had his problems as a point guard and with coaches, but last season he averaged 16.6 points and 6.7 assists on 48 percent from the field after the All-Star break. In the final month, those numbers jumped to 21.3 and 8.3 … Perry Jones (28 points) was a beast for Baylor in their 86-83 win over BYU. His putback in the closing seconds put the Bears up three and gave them just enough to hold on. Baylor somehow survived against a team that almost never loses at home even though at one point they were down 14-0 in the rebounding department. 14-0! Chad Ford tweeted that if Jones plays like that all year, he’ll be the No. 2 pick in the draft … The No. 1 team in the nation ran all over N.C. State 88-72. Syracuse was led by Kris Joseph (21 points) and Dion Waiters (22 points) … Deshaun Thomas (30 points) went OFF in Ohio State’s 74-66 win over South Carolina, while Memphis surprisingly fell to 5-4 after an eight-point loss to Louisville. Memphis looks like the type of team that as long as you keep them out of the open court, they go from looking top 20 to very average … North Carolina got a big night from Tyler Zeller (31 points) in their win, and Marquette, Florida, Mississippi State, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Michigan State, Michigan, Creighton and Indiana all won. But Vandy, Alabama and Illinois were all upset, the Fighting Illini by 16 to the giant killers, UNLV … And Lakers fans have been calling for the team to do something… anything. Well anything sounds like it’ll be Troy Murphy after the 31-year-old agreed to a one-year deal with L.A. He didn’t do a damn thing in Boston last year so no one should be expecting much … We’re out like Jimmer’s defense.

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