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After Michael Jordan came out of his second retirement to join the Washington Wizards as a player-owner, the team made a blockbuster trade by sending a young Richard Hamilton to the Detroit Pistons along with Bobby Simmons and Hubert Davis for Jerry Stackhouse, Ratko Varda, and Brian Cardinal. It would be a career-defining trade for the centerpiece players in the deal, as an ascendant Hamilton would go on to become an All-Star and a key cog on a championship team for the Pistons, while marking the beginning of Stackhouse’s slow decline from top scoring option to reserve player. With their careers being inexorably intertwined, it is only natural to compare the two shooting guards and ask:
Who was better – Richard Hamilton or Jerry Stackhouse?
The Beginning
All-Americans at both the high school and college levels, Hamilton and Stackhouse each declared early for the NBA Draft and were top-10 picks, bringing with them high expectations as potential cornerstones for moribund franchises.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Hamilton was a Parade Second Team All-American as a high school senior and went on to play basketball at the University of Connecticut. Following in the footsteps of another great Huskies shooting guard in Ray Allen, Hamilton was First Team All-Big East and Big East Player of the Year in both his sophomore and junior seasons; moreover, as a junior, he improved from Second Team to First Team All-American and won Final Four Most Outstanding Player while leading the Huskies to the National Championship in an upset win over Elton Brand and Duke. Subsequently, he declared early for the NBA and was selected seventh overall in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Wizards; as a rookie, he had a quiet year backing up Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond, averaging 9.0 points (on 42.0% shooting), 1.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game.
Similarly, Stackhouse was a star high school basketball player growing up in North Carolina, twice earning Parade First Team All-American honors and winning McDonald’s All-American MVP as a senior. Staying local, he chose to attend North Carolina and continued his success there – after making the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) All-Freshman team, he was First Team All-ACC and a First Team All-American as a sophomore, leading him to declare early after the season. Hyped by some as the next Jordan, Stackhouse was chosen third overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1995 NBA Draft and had a strong rookie season (19.2 points on 41.1% shooting with 3.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game) to make the All-Rookie team.
Career Comparison
In their primes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both Hamilton and Stackhouse consistently averaged around 20 points per game – whereas the former was extremely consistent for nearly a decade plus, the latter achieved immediate success before fading into more of a complementary role.
During his time with the Wizards, Hamilton showed improvement each year – in his second season, he more than doubled his scoring to 18.1 points per game (the first of a decade straight of at least 17+ points per game) and then, with Jordan’s return to the NBA in 2001-2002, further upped that to 20.0 points (on 43.5% shooting), 3.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game. However, with Washington perhaps looking for a more established star to play next to Jordan, Hamilton was subsequently sent to the Pistons in the aforementioned blockbuster deal right before the start of the 2002-2003 season.
In Detroit, Hamilton formed part of a rugged starting five that would eventually include Chauncey Billups at point guard, Hamilton at shooting guard, Tayshaun Prince at small forward, Rasheed Wallace at power forward, and Ben Wallace at center, and was a consistently lethal midrange shooter and scorer. To start off his Pistons career, he put up 19.7 points per game (44.3% shooting) with a career-high 3.9 rebounds to go with 2.5 assists per game; though his scoring dipped to 17.6 points per game the next year, he bounced back to 18.7 points per game in 2004-2005 with a career-high 4.9 rebounds per game; it was also during the 2003-2004 season that Hamilton broke his nose and would start wearing a clear plastic face mask that would become a trademark look for him. From there, Hamilton earned three consecutive All-Star selections:
- 2005-2006: a career-best 20.1 points per game (on a career-high 49.1% shooting) with 3.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game
- 2006-2007: 19.8 points per game (46.8% shooting) with 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game
- 2007-2008: 17.3 points per game (48.4% shooting) with 3.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game
As he entered his 30s and with the departure of longtime running mate Billups, Hamilton remained a constant for Detroit with two more 18+ point per game seasons (18.3 and 18.1 points per game in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, respectively). His scoring dropped to 14.1 points per game in 2010-2011, though, the lowest output since his rookie year. In light of disagreements with management, Hamilton was bought out in late 2011 and signed with the rival Chicago Bulls, but his best days were behind him – in a season-and-a-half with Chicago, he barely averaged double-digit points. Though he last played in the NBA during the 2012-2013 season at age 34, Hamilton did not officially retire until 2015.
Ahead of Stackhouse’s second season, the 76ers drafted Allen Iverson #1 overall and though Stackhouse had another high scoring season (20.7 points per game, but on only 40.7% shooting, with a career-high 4.2 rebounds per game along with 3.1 assists), the team ultimately felt the two ball-dominant players would not be able to coexist. As a result, midway through the 1997-1998 season, Stackhouse was traded to the Pistons with Eric Montross for Theo Ratliff, Aaron McKie, and future considerations. After a period of adjustment averaging roughly 15 points per game, he busted out in 1999-2000 to the tune of 23.6 points (42.8% shooting), 3.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game to earn his first All-Star selection. With Grant Hill’s departure to the Orlando Magic in 2000-2001, the next year was even better statistically for Stackhouse: he averaged a career-high and franchise-record 29.8 points per game (though on an inefficient 40.2% shooting), including a 57-point output, to go along with 3.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists for a second straight All-Star selection.
Never a particularly efficient player, Stackhouse shot a lowly 39.7% in 2001-2002 en route to 21.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and a career-high 5.3 assists per game and after the season, was part of the aforementioned trade for Hamilton. His first season with the Wizards playing alongside Jordan was a relatively good one: 21.5 points per game on 40.9% shooting with 3.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and the distinction of being the only teammate to outscore Jordan in a season. However, despite Jordan’s final retirement, this would also be Stackhouse’s last high-scoring season – he missed most of the 2003-2004 season (26 games played) with a knee injury and put up a then-career-low 13.9 points per game. In the offseason, he was dealt with Christian Laettner and Washington’s first-round draft pick (used on Devin Harris) to the Dallas Mavericks for Antawn Jamison.
On a veteran Mavericks team led by Dirk Nowitzki, Stackhouse assumed the role of sixth man and saw his numbers decline each year – in five seasons with Dallas, his first season was his best with 14.9 points (41.4% shooting), 3.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. By his final season with the team in 2008-2009, he was limited to just 10 games played and a paltry 4.2 points per game. After the season, he was part of a massive four-team trade involving the Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, and Orlando Magic that sent him to the Grizzlies, but never played for the team; instead, Stackhouse joined the Milwaukee Bucks and spent one year with the team, averaging 8.5 points per game. Over the next three seasons, he bounced around between the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and Brooklyn Nets, playing less than a full season’s worth of games and averaging fewer than 5 points per game, before officially retiring in 2013 at age 38.
Even though Stackhouse played 18 NBA seasons to Hamilton’s 14, the former only has about 50 additional games played due to various injuries throughout his career – in 900+ regular season games apiece, the two swingmen have very comparable career numbers: around 17 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists per game, though Hamilton was a more efficient shooter. This resulted in three All-Star selections for Hamilton vs. two for Stackhouse, though the latter was also an All-Rookie selection. Moreover, both have identical career Player Efficiency Ratings (PER) of 16.5, with Hamilton accumulating more career Win-Shares (62.8 vs. 52.4). Head-to-head, the duo matched up 18x in the regular season with a 10-8 advantage to Hamilton’s teams; again, the two players had similar production – Hamilton averaged 18.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game on 43.5% shooting to Stackhouse’s 19.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game on 44.1% shooting. All in all, both were very good players for a long time in the NBA and All-Star-caliber in their primes, but ultimately, their career achievements and accomplishments are just shy of Hall of Fame immortality.
Regular Season Statistics
| Richard Hamilton | Player | Jerry Stackhouse |
| 14 (1999-2013) | Seasons | 18 (1995-2013) |
| 921 | Games Played | 970 |
| 17.1 | Points | 16.9 |
| 3.1 | Rebounds | 3.2 |
| 3.4 | Assists | 3.3 |
| 44.9% | Field Goal % | 40.9% |
| 85.2% | Free Throw % | 82.2% |
| 16.5 | PER | 16.5 |
| 62.8 | Win Shares | 52.4 |
| 3x | All-Star Games | 2x |
| – | All-NBA | – |
| – | MVP | – |
| 1x | NBA Titles | – |
| – | NBA Finals MVP | – |
| – | Other Awards | All-Rookie |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
In addition to career arcs, perhaps the biggest difference between the careers of Hamilton and Stackhouse is team/postseason success; while Hamilton was crucial to the Pistons’ championship run, Stackhouse spent his best individual seasons on mediocre teams and only experienced success as a veteran complementary player.
Hamilton helped guide the Pistons to the playoffs for seven straight years (plus two further appearances later on with the Bulls), with the team’s greatest successes coming in the early 2000s under the tutelage of Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown. During the 2003-2004 season, Detroit made it to the Finals vs. the Shaq and Kobe-led Lakers and would prevail in five games; for his part, Hamilton led the team in scoring in the Finals with 21.4 points per game to go with 5.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. Looking to follow in the footsteps of Isiah Thomas and the “Bad Boys”, the Pistons would nearly repeat the next year – in a seven-games Finals loss to the Spurs and their triumvirate of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, Hamilton’s averages decreased to 16.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game.
Despite Stackhouse’s prolific scoring early on in his career, that production rarely resulted in much playoff success (no playoff appearances with the 76ers or Wizards, one series win with the Pistons). All in all, across nine postseason trips, his greatest team successes actually came in his role as a sixth man with the Mavericks. This included a trip to the Finals in 2005-2006 vs. the Miami Heat – despite an early 2-0 lead, Dwyane Wade would eventually lead Miami to four straight victories for the championship; for his part, Stackhouse chipped in 12.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game in the Finals, though only shot 35.5% from the field.
Playoff Statistics
| Richard Hamilton | Player | Jerry Stackhouse |
| 130 | Games Played | 75 |
| 19.8 | Points | 13.1 |
| 3.9 | Rebounds | 3.1 |
| 3.6 | Assists | 2.3 |
| 43.9% | Field Goal % | 36.9% |
| 86.0% | Free Throw % | 82.9% |
| 16.3 | PER | 12.9 |
| 11.7 | Win Shares | 1.7 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; Hamilton took some time to develop and had a long and consistent prime before falling off, whereas Stackhouse was a star in his 20s and transitioned to the bench in his 30s. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Richard Hamilton | Player | Jerry Stackhouse |
| 2000-2010 | Decade of Dominance | 1995-2003, 2004-2006 |
| 717 | Games Played | 693 |
| 18.8 | Points | 20.1 |
| 3.4 | Rebounds | 3.6 |
| 3.7 | Assists | 3.9 |
| 45.3% | Field Goal % | 41.0% |
| 85.5% | Free Throw % | 81.8% |
| 17.1 | PER | 17.1 |
| 58.5 | Win Shares | 44.6 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Again, the two are very evenly matched across their decades of dominance – Stackhouse was the more prolific scorer, though less efficient, they once again have identical PERs (17.1 each), and Hamilton produced more Win-Shares with Detroit.
My Thoughts
In hindsight, it is clear that the Pistons got the better end of the Richard Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse trade – the former went on to be a cornerstone player in Detroit for nearly a decade, whereas the latter only had one healthy season in Washington that effectively marked the end of his prime. In a sense, this trade encapsulates the two players and their respective impacts on the NBA – even though their career averages are highly comparable across the board, the key takeaway here is that not all statistics are created equal. On one hand, Hamilton achieved his numbers in the context of winning (and in a way, his offensive statistics are probably a little bit constrained by the Pistons’ system), whereas in his early productive days, many of Stackhouse’s numbers were based on volume and also somewhat “empty”, e.g. even as he was putting up 20+ points per night in Philadelphia, the 76ers were consistently one of the league’s worst teams. Nevertheless, both players ultimately had long and very productive, albeit not quite Hall of Fame-worthy, NBA careers.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Richard Hamilton
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
More Good Stuff
- Watch: Get tickets to see the Detroit Pistons or any other NBA team in action
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- Collect: Buy unique sports memorabilia for Richard Hamilton, Jerry Stackhouse, or your favorite NBA player(s) or team(s)
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