“Everybody saw what he did in the playoffs,” said Ronzone, the Pistons’ director of basketball operations who was summoned by Colangelo last summer for his expertise in international basketball to help Team USA prepare for the Olympics. “Everybody wanted him to be a part of the Select Team.”

After the Pistons play their five-game NBA Summer League schedule here, Stuckey will stick around for another week or so with the Select Team, the group of rising young NBA stars put together to give the Olympic team a few days’ worth of practice before heading to Beijing for the Summer Games.

“I think it will be great for him to play with the Select Team,” said Michael Curry, who was already scheduled to coach the Summer League roster before being named to succeed flip Saunders as Pistons coach. “I think he realizes he has a chance to be a really good player in this league. He’s shown flashes of that and I think everyone is starting to recognize it. That puts a lot of accountability on a guy. He likes accountability. When the expectations are high, the bar is risen and really good players step up.

“The playoffs were really big for him. We have to realize, too, if it wasn’t for the playoffs, he really played half a season as a rookie. To do the things he did in the playoffs lets you know he has a chance to be a star in this league.”

Stuckey got better and better as the playoffs progressed, jumping from 5.2 points in 19 minutes per game in the first round against Philadelphia to starting for an injured Chauncey Billups against Orlando to at times carrying the Pistons in the conference finals against Boston. Stuckey averaged 9.8 points against both Orlando and Boston, playing 26 minutes a game against the Magic – Billups missed all but four minutes of the final three games of that series – and 23 minutes a game against Boston when the Pistons were at full strength. He averaged 3.4 assists and 1.3 turnovers a game in the playoffs. In 57 regular-season games, Stuckey averaged 7.6 points and 2.8 assists in 19 minutes a game.

With Stuckey having largely proven himself after missing the first 25 games of the season while recovering from a broken hand to become a major piece of the rotation, it would have been understandable if the Pistons had decided to hold him out of Summer League. But Stuckey wanted to play in Las Vegas again for a variety of reasons, including growing into a leadership role and building on the chemistry he established with the other members of the Zoo Crew who’ll join him here – Arron Afflalo, Amir Johnson and Cheikh Samb, primarily, plus rookie Walter Sharpe.

“I thought it would be a good decision to come back and do it again,” he said. “It gives me more time to get ready for when the season comes to lead a team to the Finals. That’s what I’m doing here – I’m just trying to lead and trying to get better.

“The four guys who are here again, we established that chemistry during the season with the people on the bench. We are going to be playing a lot and M.C. is going to be expecting a lot of us, so we have to be ready to play. This is also to help the new guys like Walter and the other players we drafted.”

Curry put Stuckey in a position of leadership when he talked to him after the Pistons’ playoff exit, telling him that if he and his teammates showed up in Las Vegas in top-notch condition, they would practice once a day instead of twice. Stuckey held up his end of the deal and so did Curry – the Pistons put in three-hour practices Tuesday night and Wednesday morning before meeting Philadelphia for a Thursday scrimmage in advance of Friday’s Summer League opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.

While Stuckey was the rare young player who quickly won the trust of a veteran coach, Saunders, he thinks Curry is going to be more inclined to give young players a longer leash, another reason he’s eager to play under him in Las Vegas.

“M.C., if you’re not out there working hard, he’s going to pull you,” Stuckey said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an All-Star or whatever, and that’s the type of coach you need. You’ve got to be out there and playing hard. That’s all M.C. wants. If you go out there and play hard and play defense, you’ll be fine.”

Stuckey is looking at his involvement with the Select Team – which gives him a leg up on being picked for the 2012 U.S. Olympians – as both an honor and a learning experience.

“It’s an honor to be practicing with them and going against the best players in the world,” he said. “I just have to take advantage of the situation. You’re going against the best point guards in the game – J(ason) Kidd, Chris Paul, Deron Williams. While I’m out there, I’m going to be playing, but I’m still going to be learning.”

As Stuckey showed in his compressed rookie season, he’s a quick study. Though properly humble and respectful of both the game and the veterans who’ve played it, Stuckey exuded unusual poise and confidence throughout his rookie season. But he said he feels a lot different this time around in Las Vegas than he did a year ago when he arrived just two weeks after the Pistons made him the No. 15 pick out of tiny Eastern Washington.

“I feel like I’m a vet – at Summer League,” he laughed. “I feel a lot more advanced.”

Stuckey is well aware that Joe Dumars stated very publicly that he was open to trading any of his veteran starters. If the right deal includes Billups – a scenario made all the more possible by Stuckey’s emergence at that position – Stuckey said he’d be ready to assume whatever role the Pistons feel he’s up to shouldering.

“I’m not going to be scared,” he said. “I’m never scared. The people I have around me are going to help me out to get me where I need to be and I’ll make sure I’m ready. (The possibility of a veteran being traded) is a little weird, but at the same time, Joe knows what he’s doing. He’s trying to build a team to win championships. We’ve been to the Eastern Conference finals six straight years and we haven’t gotten over the hump. I think Joe thinks it’s time to make a change. He’s going to make the right decision and whatever he does is going to help the team.”