More chatter about Reggie Jackson and the mix at point guard, SVG on why Aron Baynes wasn’t traded last month and a whole lot more in the latest edition of Pistons Mailbag.
Justin (@RsquaredComicz): Since Reggie Jackson is our second-best 3-point shooter, do you think SVG would consider playing him at the two next to Ish in spurts?
Langlois: I don’t think he’s thinking about it at this point, Justin. If Jackson starts playing consistently well – like the Reggie Jackson we saw last season, or the past two games – and Smith continues playing as well as he has, then that’s a possibility down the road. Playing the two point guards together was something Van Gundy pondered initially, too, to get two playmakers on the court simultaneously for a roster without an abundance of off-the-dribble playmakers. But he’ll be cautious about extending Jackson’s minutes until he sees a consistently high level of energy from him. The results of the past two games, with Van Gundy essentially letting them split each quarter – a pattern broken only when Jackson’s play demanded he go the route in the fourth quarter of Monday’s win over Chicago – has worked exceedingly well. It’s two games, so it’s not exactly conclusively proven just yet. But the results have been promising enough that I don’t think Van Gundy will veer from form until he has a reason to tinker. If Jackson’s level of play makes it an easy call for Van Gundy to continue extending his minutes, and Smith continues to prove a catalyst for a second unit that’s been a bright spot for a long time now, then giving them minutes in tandem could get revisited at some point.
Dylan (@Dylan_Cruz21): How much longer do you think Reggie can return to starter’s minutes and produce the way he has with the six-minute rotation?
Langlois: If by that you mean what will it take from Jackson to convince Stan Van Gundy to again start giving him more minutes every night than Ish Smith, then I guess the answer would be more nights like Monday’s in the win over Chicago more consistently. When Van Gundy saw Jackson get on a roll in the second half, he played him 19 of the 24 minutes after halftime. He played 31 minutes, which is right about where he was at last season when he averaged 30.7 minutes a game. Even when Jackson made a push for an All-Star berth last season, Van Gundy rarely played him more than 34 minutes because he knows Jackson carries a heavy burden as the initiator of the offense on virtually every possession. That’s been reduced some this season as the effectiveness of Jackson’s pick-and-roll forays has ebbed, but it will rise quickly again with more performances like Monday’s. As long as Ish Smith is playing at his current level, Van Gundy won’t feel compelled to restore Jackson’s minutes to previous norms. But if Jackson is playing like vintage Jackson, then he’s clearly the player the Pistons will want on the floor at winning time.
Ken (Richland, Mich.): What questions do you get from fans that irritate you or surprise you the most? Trade scenarios? Or player evaluations?
Langlois: No question is an irritant, Ken. Sometimes I’ll get submissions that aren’t questions at all but assertions, and sometimes belligerent assertions that essentially imply the opinion of the correspondent is more valid than the collaborative decisions reached by Stan Van Gundy and his cabinet with all of the advantages available to them to inform the decision-making process. And even those don’t irritate so much as amuse me. I spent the bulk of my professional career as a member of the print media and most of that as a columnist, paid to provide opinions, in effect. And that meant my job demanded that I offer evaluations of the people who ran the franchises in the market that served my readership. Even then, I understood some things were beyond my credible ability to critique. Draft picks, for instance, in the moment. The collective man hours a professional organization pours into draft preparation is mind-boggling. The Pistons have four full-time college scouts plus at least another half-dozen members of Van Gundy’s front office – some also involved with pro and international scouting – who’ll become increasingly involved in the evaluation process as the draft nears. They not only evaluate virtually every second of their game performances, either live or on videotape, but often see them in practice settings and have previous scouting input from before their college careers began. They’ll do deep dives on character traits and background and psychological profiling and pore over every intimate detail of their medical records. They’ll run the analytics and look for historical references to help project what a prospect will become over three and four years. And then somebody who’s seen a kid play 20 minutes and dominate against an opponent with no one resembling an NBA player will loudly assert to me – without an ounce of self-doubt – that the Pistons absolutely positively must draft him and, by the way, trade the two veterans ahead of him to clear playing time. I’ve never been that sure of anything this side of proposing to my wife, thus my amusement – bordering on amazement – at Mailbag submissions of that sort.
Buk (Bangkok, Thailand): Do the Pistons view Andre Drummond as potentially the best player on a championship team or is he viewed more as an important but complementary piece? It seems a center will be difficult to build around in the present-day NBA.
Langlois: I don’t think that’s the way teams look at players – or at least the vast majority of players, in effect, all players who aren’t clearly already at the very top of their profession. In Drummond, they see a player who, at 23, is already at or very near the top of the vast pyramid of basketball players as a rebounder. If nothing else, they know he gives them a chance to win the rebounding battle every night. They see a tremendous athlete with proven durability – since sitting out 20 games with a stress fracture of the lower back as a rookie, he’s missed two games, playing in 307 of 309 games – due to injury. (Drummond sat out last year’s regular-season finale along with Detroit’s four other starters with the playoffs on tap against that night’s opponent, Cleveland, which prompted Stan Van Gundy’s decision to rest his starters when it was announced all Cavs starters were out.) They see a player with high-end defensive potential, sometimes realized, sometimes not. He’s not likely to ever be the leading scorer on a championship-caliber team, but if Drummond continues to improve and the Pistons – either through internal improvement of young veterans and leaps forward by young players like Stanley Johnson and Henry Ellenson or via trade or other personnel acquisition – get a few other players of equal impact around him, who knows where it can lead? All a front office can do is every bit of its homework to be prepared when opportunities to improve the roster present themselves and have a feel for putting a team together.
Sima (@simasuccar): Is SVG thinking of putting Tobias Harris back in the starting lineup?
Langlois: This one comes under the heading of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Van Gundy clearly regards Harris as a starting-caliber player and he’s made every effort to assert that in any conversation about his decision to move Jon Leuer into the starting lineup for Harris. It’s not so much that Van Gundy thinks the Pistons have figured anything out or turned a corner by going 10-5 over their past 15 games to close to within a game of .500 as he likes the chemistry of the second unit with Harris’ scoring as a key component along with Ish Smith’s transition zest, Aron Baynes’ toughness and defensive anchoring and Stanley Johnson’s energy and all-around contributions. If the Pistons are trailing in the final five minutes of a close game, you can bet Harris will be on the floor. If they’re protecting a lead and Van Gundy wants his best defensive unit, then his lineup is going to be dictated by matchups. That means maybe Harris, but maybe Leuer if the other team has a bigger power forward who can body up on Harris or shoot over him. Harris has thrived as a bench scorer and the Pistons are playing better. No reason to think he’ll make that move at this point.
Pistons Talk (@WolthiuslukeSpo): Do you think Tobias Harris has a good chance to win Sixth Man of the Year?
Langlois: Stan Van Gundy thinks Lou Williams is the front-runner. He also said last week that he thinks the Pistons’ record would argue against Harris. Award winners, he says, usually come from teams at or near the top of the league. Williams spent most of his season with the lottery-bound Lakers, but the trade to Houston gives him the extra dollop of legitimacy. The wild card is that the biggest threat to Williams’ candidacy probably is Eric Gordon, who is now his teammate. Is it possible Williams and Gordon split votes and open the door for Harris? Also worth noting: Harris has started 38 games already. He needs to come off the bench in at least 39, which means he needs to come off the bench in at least 14 of the final 19 games – and more than that for every game he might start. So if Leuer were to miss a game or two and Harris took his place in the starting lineup, the numbers get a little dicey for him. If Harris starts even three more games, he takes himself out of the running.
C.J. (@cjhudd18): Why do you think SVG held on to Baynes at the trade deadline despite his expiring contract?
Langlois: Short answer: The offers the Pistons got weren’t nearly tempting enough to give up Baynes and what his contributions mean to a playoff drive. And I don’t know what those offers were, but I think it’s fair to guess the Pistons weren’t willing to give up Baynes for a second-round draft pick – especially since the teams that might have been offering a second-rounder were likely playoff contenders, meaning the pick would have been 45 and down. Go check the hit rate with draft picks outside the top 40. You’re lucky if you get one per year that becomes more than just another guy. Here’s what Van Gundy said on Tuesday about Baynes and the trade deadline: “It was certainly something that we had to discuss. The major reason (he wasn’t traded) was you couldn’t get enough of a return to make up for what we think we lose in him. And even though we know it’s about that much of a percentage” – Van Gundy held his thumb and forefinger about a half-inch apart – “that we could have him back, we didn’t want to give up that percentage. We have a lot of respect for him. He’s a guy that we obviously play really well with and he’s a big part of what we’re doing now. So we didn’t want to give him up.” Look at Monday’s win over Chicago. The Pistons began the game with poor defensive focus. They gave up 10 fast-break points in the first eight minutes, an alarming figure. When Baynes entered the game, things stabilized. That’s not exactly a rare occurrence – Baynes and the second unit helping improve the defense and giving the Pistons a chance to get back in games. Boban Marjanovic – the alternative if Baynes had been traded, and likely the backup center next season – might also help change the tenor of games with his size and scoring ability, but he isn’t likely to do it via his influence on the defensive end. “It’s been proven for two years now that our defense is significantly better with Aron on the floor,” Van Gundy said. “His communication, his toughness, the fact that he reacts quickly and is ahead of the play, really helps our defense. And he helps us play well on offense, too. He’s a great screener. He understands the game.” If the Pistons could have gotten back another piece – maybe someone who would have helped with their perimeter shooting, for instance, and was under contract for another season – they would have been open to a deal. But a second-round pick? Not worth the diminished odds of a playoff run is how I’d interpret his answer.
Shameek (@shamshammgod): If the Pistons miss the playoffs, what changes do you think need to occur?
Langlois: That’s something Stan Van Gundy and his staffs – both front office and coaching – will sit down and dissect in great detail at season’s end. But there are still 19 games left and much can change over that time. But let’s say the season were over today and the Pistons made the playoffs as the No. 7 seed and lost in the first round in much the same fashion as their season has gone, with Reggie Jackson rarely showing the burst and panache of a season ago. Then they’d have to ask themselves the hard question about Jackson and whether the left knee tendinosis and subsequent platelet-rich plasma injection treatment had permanently robbed him of the qualities that made him a top-10 point guard last season or if they could assume a return to previous levels next season. I don’t know the answer to that. There’s no reason, based on the fairly limited evidence of others who’ve undergone PRP treatment, to expect Jackson won’t be at full physical capability next season. But they’ve got five more weeks, at least, and 19 more games, at minimum, to answer that question. If they’ve got vintage Reggie Jackson, much changes for them. If they don’t think that guy is ever coming back, then they would have to ask if they had enough offensive firepower to compete in an era of pronounced NBA offense and how to acquire more of it if the answer was no.
Brent (@Brent FFF): Realistic chances of securing the fourth seed?
Langlois: Slim? Toronto goes into Wednesday’s games in fourth at 37-26. The Pistons are six games back at 31-32. Let’s say Toronto, reeling a little with Kyle Lowry out for perhaps all of the regular season, stumbles to a 7-12 finish to end up 44-38. That means the Pistons would have to go 13-6 to tie. If both of those things happen and two of Toronto’s losses come to the Pistons – their remaining meetings, March 17 and April 5, are both at The Palace – then the Pistons would win the tiebreaker. But all of that also assumes that nobody else, including the teams currently between the Pistons and Raptors in the standings, wouldn’t compile an even better record and surge ahead of both Detroit and Toronto. The Pistons are just three back of Atlanta, the current No. 5 seed, and have already clinched the tiebreaker over the Hawks (2-1) with the season series concluded. That’s a more realistic target. Of course, the Pistons are just 1½ games ahead of two teams currently outside the playoff picture, one of which, Miami, has won 19 of 23 games, including back-to-back wins over Cleveland in its most recent games. So if you’re playing the probabilities game, the Pistons probably have a better chance of missing the playoffs than jumping up to the No. 5 seed – and that’s even truer if you’re hoping for home-court advantage in the first round.
Odor (@odor31): Any thoughts on having Boban join the Drive roster just to keep him active?
Langlois: As a second-year player, he’d be eligible to do so. It’s not something I’ve discussed with Stan Van Gundy, but my hunch is he’d only do so if Marjanovic requested the move. He’s a veteran of several European pro seasons and he’s 28. I think Van Gundy would be sensitive to Marjanovic’s preferences in this case. From a practical standpoint, I also think he’d be reluctant to loan him to the Grand Rapids Drive if it meant he’d be unavailable for a Pistons game. Injury or foul trouble to either Andre Drummond or Aron Baynes makes Marjanovic next man up. Even if Drummond and Baynes are extraordinarily durable, Van Gundy is leery of getting caught short of bodies at center and point guard.
John (@johnconnell1981): Would we rather play the Celtics or the Wizards?
Langlois: Their history against both teams over the past two years says Boston all the way. The Pistons split with the Celtics last season, each team winning once on the other’s home court, and went 1-3 this season with their win coming on the road and their three losses by a combined 12 points. They’ve won twice against Washington in six games over the past two seasons, one last season when John Wall missed the game and one this year on Marcus Morris’ tip over his twin brother at the buzzer. And a few of their losses have been completely one sided. The Celtics have a deep and versatile roster, but they generally have trouble containing Andre Drummond, who hasn’t put up big numbers against Washington’s Marcin Gortat.