For much of the season, the Pistons rarely won games on nights both Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson didn’t come with their best stuff. Over the final few months – really, about the time they traded for Tobias Harris and diversified their offense – they sometimes beat teams when neither player starred.
But it’s probably fair to guess that the Pistons aren’t going to throw the fear of God into the Cleveland Cavaliers if both Drummond and Jackson aren’t at least very good – and possibly better than that – over the course of their best-of-seven series.
Everybody else has to do their part, too – right down to the youngest among them, 19-year-old Stanley Johnson.
He’s perhaps the biggest X factor in Stan Van Gundy’s quiver, a player who at times this season looked like he was on the verge of indispensability. The Johnson the Pistons had at the All-Star break was a game-changing dynamo who would affect outcomes in any number of ways on a given night – sometimes with his scoring, often with his defense, at other times with his playmaking off the dribble or his rebounding or even his poise.
But that guy hasn’t been seen often since contributing greatly to arguably the season’s biggest win, scoring 10 points and grabbing four rebounds in a 96-88 decision at Cleveland Feb. 22 to snap a five-game losing streak and launch the Pistons on a 17-9 finishing kick.
That was also the night Johnson had to leave prematurely with a shoulder injury that cost him seven games and seems to have thrown off his equilibrium. Since returning from injury, Johnson’s scoring is down almost by half and shooting has become an enormous struggle.
When the shooting issues also spilled over into spotty offensive decision making, Van Gundy acted. Johnson, shooting around 30 percent over the 14 games since his return and committing more turnovers than assists, came out of the rotation for two games. He played in the last two, though, as Van Gundy acknowledged the need for Johnson’s defensive versatility against everyone from LeBron James to Kyrie Irving for Cleveland.
“I’m not sure that he’s totally embraced it yet, but right now, for where he is in his career – and it’ll change over time – he really needs to base his game on the defensive end of the floor. Where he has his best chance at excellence, greatness, is on the defensive end. He’s got really quick feet, great strength and can guard multiple positions – can probably guard one through four, which makes him a very valuable and unique guy.”
There’s a part of Johnson that’s beyond his 19 years. It was evident in one of his many bright moments this season, a Feb. 4 win over New York when the Pistons squandered all of a 27-point lead and had to come back to beat the Knicks 111-105. Johnson, starting for an injured Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, had two critical baskets with the Knicks breathing down their backs. Van Gundy would later say he appeared more poised in the face of New York’s furious rally than his veterans.
“I thought he was tremendous,” Van Gundy said after Johnson logged 44 minutes and led the Pistons with 22 points plus nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and a blocked shot. “Second start of his career. Thought he played real well. We were even going to him down the stretch before Reggie hit the threes. We were running plays for him. Fearless. Getting better all the time. Not afraid to make plays.”
Van Gundy would be concerned about most rookies being potentially overwhelmed by the playoff stage. He might have doubts about how Johnson is going to play over the next few weeks, but it isn’t rooted in concern over him being cowed by the moment.
“He’s a pretty tough kid mentally. He loves to compete. I never worry about Stanley’s competitiveness or his intensity,” Van Gundy said after Saturday’s practice with the Pistons heading to Cleveland for Sunday’s Game 1. “It’s whether or not he’s tuned in mentally and the offensive decisions he makes. Those are things guys have to learn, but he does have to learn to tune in more. I thought the last two days of practice have been two of his best days in terms of being tuned in. Hopefully, that will translate into the playoff series.”
The Pistons go into the series as long shots to beat Cleveland, the runaway favorite to advance to the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference. But if Jackson and Drummond are near their peak and veteran teammates are at their complementary best, the Pistons can erase some of gap between them and the Cavaliers. If Stanley Johnson is the guy the Pistons had at the All-Star break, they just might be able to close it.