Rebound more, Stan Van Gundy told Jonas Jerebko. And so he did.
If the Pistons had made one more defensive stand amid a game in which they held Phoenix 17 points under its scoring average, Jerebko would have been the blue-collar hero of Wednesday's game, an 88-86 loss. Among Jerebko's six boards – a rebound speared on the fly, Jerebko's blond mop shooting by orange Phoenix jerseys to the ball – was one that produced the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 3-pointer that gave the Pistons the lead with 34 seconds to play.
That Jerebko was on the floor at winning time is half the story. Though he'd impressed Van Gundy over the summer, when he logged more days and hours at the practice facility than anyone on the roster, it was no certainty he'd be in the rotation – not with Josh Smith and Greg Monroe both ticketed for power forward.
But the injury to Jodie Meeks cracked a door, requiring Smith to spend more time at small forward while Caron Butler and Kyle Singler filled the hole Meeks left at shooting guard, and Jerebko shoved it open and picked up a few floor burns in the process.
"I'm just trying to stay ready," Jerebko said. "I'm getting a bigger and bigger role and I'm just trying to work hard in practice and stay ready. A couple of nights I haven't played, but I'm just trying to keep my head in it. When he calls my name, I'm trying to be ready. First and foremost trying to be out there on defense. I've got to rebound the ball better – he already told me that – and it's something I'm trying to do."
Van Gundy loves the effect Jerebko has on Detroit's offense for the way he keeps the ball moving and the shooting threat he represents.
"He's really focused on moving the ball and running to more pick and rolls, so our ball movement is much, much better with Jonas at the four than it is with our other guys," Van Gundy said. "He's just more tuned in to that. And he can stretch the floor out and shoot the ball, so you spread the defense out. And, really, with him at the four is our only chance to spread the defense out and get more room."
He's been a little hesitant to use Jerebko in certain situations – he didn't play last week at Chicago, for example, when Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson were the opposing power forwards – but he went with him a few nights later at Memphis, another team with powerful rebounders and scoring threats at power forward, including Zach Randolph.
Jerebko – true to the character that permitted a kid from Sweden, where basketball ranks near the bottom of the top 10 in the national pecking order and there was no native role model to give him a road map to the NBA – doesn't concede any matchup.
"I feel like I can play defense on anybody, so they've got to guard me, too," said Jerebko, averaging 7.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 16 minutes a game. "I'm just staying ready. Whenever he calls my name, I'm ready to get out there and do whatever I can."
He's hitting 3-point shots at a 40 percent clip, continuing the hot streak that closed last season once John Loyer replaced Mo Cheeks and Jerebko got back in the rotation, and also proving more effective off the dribble. More than anything, it's his decisiveness with the ball. Once he gets it, it's either a quick pass, a dribble handoff, a shot or a pump fake for a one- or two-dribble pull-up or drive to the rim.
"I spent the whole summer here working on my game," he said. "I shot a lot of threes with the coaches, but I worked on everything. Putting the ball on the floor is something I've done my whole career. I've been working on my shot every summer and it's starting to pay off, but I've got to mix it up and try to get that one-dribble pull-up, too, but move the ball, make my open shot and play solid."
Van Gundy's offensive philosophy meshes not only with Jerebko's skill set but his belief of what basketball should be, too. Maybe that's the European influence, where sharing the ball and the expectation that all five players should be able to handle and shoot are rooted in principle.
"Basketball is much more fun when everybody gets to touch the ball and the ball keeps moving," he said. "I try to get the team going and try to get everyone involved. It's more fun for everybody, just something I've always tried to be, unselfish and move the ball."
That's part of what has won Jerebko a role in every season, along with his contagious hustle and momentum-churning trademark plays – the dives to the floor, the out-of-nowhere rebounds a la Wednesday's final minute, the willingness to take a charge.
"He brings us great energy," Van Gundy said. "Our offense has been much more productive with him than without him. You've got to factor in some of that is he's basically playing against second-unit people, but nonetheless – just even the eye test, in terms of ball movement, it gets better. The floor is spread out more and he plays at a good pace on the offensive end of the floor. We don't always tend to do that as a group."
When the Pistons played at Atlanta in the preseason, Van Gundy saw that as a game that wouldn't be a good matchup for Jerebko. He might have changed his mind in the past month, more so with his spirited play as the Pistons battled back with him on the floor to nearly beat Phoenix.
Earlier in the fourth quarter against the Suns, he one-handed an Andre Drummond missed hook shot and slammed it home to keep the Pistons on Phoenix's heels. He finished with six boards – four offensive – to go with seven points on 3 of 5 shooting, an assist, a steal and a blocked shot.
But only two of his six rebounds came on the defensive end and that's what Van Gundy really asked him to improve.
"But look, I can point to something with everybody, including myself," Van Gundy said. "Nobody's going to be good everywhere. You just want them concentrating on certain things."
Jerebko certainly gives him nothing to fret about when it comes to his priorities. As the longest-tenured Piston in his sixth season, Jerebko has more of a leadership role than ever. He's seen preseason optimism squeezed out of previous Pistons teams by rocky starts, but dismisses any suggestion the same thing is happening amid this year's 3-9 record.
"We're upbeat," he said. "I feel like we've been in every game. It's easy to say that we should have a better record, but we've been in every game. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing and finish games."
And sometimes, it appears, he'll be on the floor to finish them.