The Pistons have lost seven of their last nine games, having slipped from 14-13 in mid-December to 16-20 now. However, the team’s second-half performance on Sunday in a win over the Heat was a strong one. As Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details, head coach Stan Van Gundy says his club can be “two totally different teams” depending on the night, and the team that showed up in the second half on Sunday is the one that he wants to see more regularly. Langlois points to a few encouraging signs for the team, including Reggie Jackson‘s improved play, and identifies a few other areas that still need to be addressed.
Here’s more from out of Detroit:
- The Pistons may be without their backup center for the next little while, after Aron Baynes left Sunday’s game with a sprained ankle, per Aaron McMann of MLive.com. It remains to be seen how serious the injury is, but if Baynes has to miss time, Detroit will likely either use Jon Leuer at center or insert Boban Marjanovic into the rotation.
- Stanley Johnson, who has returned to the Pistons’ rotation after falling out of it earlier in the season, is seeing his patience and extra work paying off, McMann writes in a separate MLive.com piece. Last month, a report suggested that the team had resisted trade overtures for 2015’s eighth overall pick.
- With the season nearing its halfway point and the Pistons currently in 11th in the Eastern Conference, the team needs a quick fix to get back in contention, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News. While Van Gundy has said he isn’t looking at the trade market at the moment, that might change if the club doesn’t start showing more signs of life in the coming weeks, Beard writes.
seeing as how they were doing just as good under Ish Smith, i wonder if there’s any chance they flip Reggie Jackson to chicago for, say, Rondo and Denzel Valentine?