Last season, Jerry Stackhouse took shots the way the IRS collects taxes: with little mercy and without fail.

Despite possessing exquisite offensive skills that produced All-Star numbers, the 6-foot-6 swingman for Detroit was considered no more than a gunner with no concept of team play.

But now, the Pistons are off to their best start in 11 seasons, with Stackhouse leading the way. And suddenly, the perception has started to shift for the player who hoisted a league-high 1,927 shots last season.

"Stackhouse Can Pass ? Really," was the headline in a recent article by The Sporting News.

The story described Stackhouse as maturing into a team player this season. But the portrayals of Stackhouse as less selfish illustrate an overstated presumption in the NBA: that certain scorers make teammates better, which leads to winning, in contrast to selfish shooters who happened to play for losers.

One area usually separates the praised scorers from the ones labeled as selfish: winning. And that has to do with having better teammates almost as much as making them better.