Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy is contemplating starting Ish Smith over Reggie Jackson, according to a report from Rod Beard of The Detroit News. Van Gundy has showed concern of his starting unit’s lack of energy and production, Beard reports, and has not been pleased with Jackson and Andre Drummond‘s defensive efforts.
“Those are the two guys [Jackson and Drummond]. The energy has got to go up,” Van Gundy said. “Andre picked up his energy the other night but that’s got to be on a consistent basis, and we need more energy out of Reggie.”
It’s been a slog for Jackson of late, averaging nine points on 32.6% shooting over his last four games. The 26-year-old still has plenty of upside, but has regressed in PPG, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage from 2015/16. Jackson was mentioned in rumors throughout the trade deadline, but stayed put due to Detroit’s high asking price, as well as his lengthy contract (Jackson is in the second season of a five-year, $80MM deal).
The Pistons enter a vital stretch of their season with just a one game lead over the eighth seed. Though Smith’s recent play has hardly been stellar- shooting 33.3% over his last five games- Van Gundy may give him the starting role in Saturday’s match-up with Philadelphia.
“We’ve got to get better energy off the start of the games,” Van Gundy said. “The last Philadelphia game was one of our better starts in each half. That’s got to get going — that’s not just him (Jackson). Anything’s possible right now, but we’ve got to get playing better and we’ve got to get our first unit playing more consistently and playing better.”
Would Nuggets swap Mudiay for Reggie? It would probably take a bit more in terms of cap to make it work but both players need change of scenery.
Never understood the fascination with Reggie and extending that ridiculous contract to him…He’s a backup PG as he was in OKC.
I like Ish actually he seems like the higher basketball IQ. I’ve seen Reggie make awful boneheaded plays at times. I think the team rallies around ish better. The offense runs more fluently Bc he has that dribble penetration compared to Reggie just dribbling for 15 secs in circles.
Idk what happened to Reggie, he played so well that he actually forced his way out of OKC, flashed a lot of potential as a playmaker, got a ton of pick and roll attempts with Drummond and never really improved anymore. Ish Smith is a great IQ basketball player and with Harris and Morris they might benefit from something more than a Reggie Jackson-Andre Drummond pick and roll that gets iced every time. They would be smart if they traded them both and got some picks and rebuilt, but that’s hard with Van Gundy as dual coach and president of basketball ops.
Drummond is a 23 year old all star. Why would you want to trade him to rebuild? He is the rebuild.
Andre os like 25th on the keague on blocks. With his height and athleticism you would expect top 5, maybe top 10, as he’s billed as an elite center. The defensive instincts aren’t there, and nor is the hustle. All he does at an elite level is rebound. He needs supplemented or he hurts you a lot.
You’re way off. Blocks are not everything and what he loses in blocks is made up for in steals, where he’s thirteenth in the league and first amongst centers. He’s also top ten in points per game and second in rebounds.
I don’t know what you’re talking about with hustle. Per usual, that’s an argument people make when they don’t have any actual evidence. Drummond is a top tier center, so long as you put more value in a center than just blocks.
By the way, the difference in blocks between Drummond and number 10 is 0.2. That means once every five games, a top ten blocker makes a block that Drummond doesn’t. A seriously irrelevant stat to use against Drummond.
We actually grab a higher percent of defensive rebounds when he sits; 82.2 percent when he’s off, compared to 79.2 when he’s on. His DRPM is 27th among centers and behind both Baban and Baynes. Pretty much every center in the league has lit him up especially if they can fake a jump shot for a night. Opposing centers shoot over 40% from 3 against him. He can’t defend screens at all. His defensive awareness is pitiful. He fails to slide over ever and is a terrible decision maker on defense. We’re constantly giving up floaters to guards because of his awful pick and roll defense. All our top lineups in plus/minus don’t feature him and that isn’t by coincidence. You can hype him up all you want but once you actually watch the games and pay attention to what he’s doing you realize he’s one of the most overrated players in the game right now.
Reggie is still playing injured I believe. He can’t take guards off the dribble like he did last year, and teams have found a way to shut down his P&R with Drummond. Not thrilled with Ish’s shooting ability, but his dribble penetration creates scoring opportunities, that Reggie can’t make.
God Van Gundy is a terrible coach. How much more time do you need? The seasons almost over. If you haven’t figured out that Jackson sucks by now maybe you aren’t fit to hold that position? All our top lineups have 2 things in common; no Drummond and no Jackson. Both suck. We need to bail out of both. The league already figured out Jackson sucks, we need to bail out of Drummond too before the league notices all he does is rebound and miss free throws. He”s been lit up by almost every center in the league. You’re not going to win too many games when management keeps telling you 2 of your worst players are the stars of the team.
I’ve seen some bad comments, but this….
Wonder what DET would give up to get out of Jackson’s contract…
Philly could Swap Bayless for Jackson & 2017 1st.
16th pick could maybe land a TJ Leaf if he falls.
Ummmm…. no.