When the Pistons decided to cast their lot with Reggie Jackson as their point guard of the future, they put a lot of stock into the way he performed as a starter over 49 games of his Oklahoma City career.
A strikingly similar sample size as a starter – 50 games – helped convince them that Ish Smith was the right fit to be Jackson’s backup and lead their second unit in 2016-17.
Smith averaged 14.7 points and 7.0 assists in 32.4 minutes a game for Philadelphia after being acquired by the 76ers in a Christmas Eve trade last season. Jackson has proven a durable starter for the Pistons – he played 79 games last season, missing one to illness, one to a minor abdominal injury and one when Stan Van Gundy rested all five starters in the season finale – but the Pistons wanted someone behind him who could handle starter’s minutes in case of a more extended absence.
“It did matter,” Van Gundy said of Smith’s success as a starter with the 76ers, who were 1-30 when they acquired him but won their first game with him in the lineup and three of the first six. “What you want with all of your backups, one of the things you ask is can those guys start. You can’t look at somebody and say he’s OK as a 16-, 18-minute a game guy because it can quickly become more than that. The fact he has that experience and did well, yeah, that’s a big thing. I feel like certainly with what would at least appear to be our first four guys off the bench, all of ’em are capable of starting.���
The core of Van Gundy’s bench going into his third season as Pistons coach will include Smith and Jon Leuer – their two biggest off-season additions – plus bench holdovers Aron Baynes and Stanley Johnson.
The Pistons feel like they have a great handle on what they can expect from Smith, both between the lines and in their locker room. And the latter was a consideration, Van Gundy said, as they considered the impact of losing veteran leadership with the departures of Anthony Tolliver, Steve Blake and Joel Anthony.
“I knew Ish (from coaching him briefly in Orlando in the 2011-12 season). Reggie Jackson played with him in Oklahoma City. Marcus (Morris) played with him in Phoenix. Both those guys, ‘Best teammate I’ve ever had,’ ” Van Gundy said. “There’s a lot to Ish. He brings to the floor great quickness, pushes the ball on the break, gets in the paint, makes plays for other people, really athletic guy.
“But the other thing he really brings is great energy to your team – and not just physical energy, mental energy. Every single day, he’s an upbeat, positive guy that people love being around. He makes coming to the gym a better day every day. We knew all that about him and that played into it. We knew we were losing – at the time, we didn’t know how many, but you knew you were going to lose some veteran guys. So Ish, his intangibles, figures in to that a lot, too.”
Smith went undrafted out of Wake Forest in 2010 and has had to fight his way onto a roster every season since. His perimeter shot was always the biggest knock on Smith, but he’s shown significant gains in that area. In that 50-game stint in Philadelphia, Smith shot close to the league norm from the 3-point line, hitting .336 from the arc on nearly three attempts per game.
“It was huge for me,” Smith said after signing with the Pistons in July about getting the chance to establish himself as an NBA starter. “An opportunity to continue to grow, to get better. We played against Detroit three times last year and it was intriguing. I thought the second team was really good but I thought I could bring the team my pace and ability to find shooters and Coach loves pick and rolls. That’s something I excel in. Philadelphia really helped me and it didn’t hurt that I played under Coach (in Orlando).”
The Pistons see Smith running those pick and rolls with Baynes and his rib-jarring screens, making Stanley Johnson a more effective player in transition given his ability to push the pace and helping Leuer find open shots. They see him being someone whose buoyant personality will lighten the mood in the locker room when the inevitable adversity of the 82-game grind finds them. How sure are they Smith was the right fit?
Well, news of their agreement on contract terms came three hours into free agency on July 1. Pretty sure, in other words.