With the playoff chase that looked a certainty until just a few weeks ago now reduced to odds akin to winning the NBA lottery – and the Pistons know all about how long those can be – what's left for Stan Van Gundy?
Well, plenty.
There's pushing along the development of Andre Drummond, especially as it relates to becoming a more instinctive rim protector. Ditto for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who is showing signs of a developing mid-range game and an affinity for taking the ball hard to the rim to complement a 3-point stroke. There's assessing backup power forward Shawne Williams, a player whose option the Pistons must decide to pick up – or not – by the end of June. And there's gauging the readiness of Spencer Dinwiddie and Quincy Miller to challenge for rotation spots next season.
But nothing is more important than using these final 14 games to learn as much about Reggie Jackson – and about the type of players best to surround him with – as Van Gundy can. The Pistons traded Kyle Singler and D.J. Augustin to Oklahoma City with full confidence that Jackson would be their point guard of the future. He's had brilliant highs – the 23-point, 20-assist night to snap a 10-game losing streak in Tuesday's win over Memphis foremost – but a few other games where he's looked unsure of himself and unable to reverse negative momentum.
The Pistons are hopeful Brandon Jennings will be ready when training camp opens in September, but Van Gundy has pulled no punches in discussing the future. Jennings is coming off an injury – a ruptured left Achilles tendon – that has an uneven history of successful recovery. The Pistons, on one hand, are optimistic that Jennings' body type will lend itself to a quick and full recovery, but on the other they also know his game is predicated on quickness and change-of-direction ability that requires willing legs.
Beyond that, they are fully cognizant of Jennings' contractual status: one year left before free agency.
No mystery, given those two factors, why Jackson has moved front and center at point guard. If Jennings comes back healthy, it's a tremendous bonus. The Pistons will have two dynamic point guards and – because of Jackson's size and length – Van Gundy is already speculating about the possibilities of playing them simultaneously. If it works out to everyone's ideal, there would be no reason for either side to not at least consider extending the relationship.
But the Pistons have to cast their lot with Jackson, one way or the other, long before they'll know anything substantive about reasonable expectations for Jennings in 2015-16. Free agency opens July 1. It will be well into the preseason, at the earliest, before they could possibly be comfortable with Jennings' ability to shoulder starter's minutes at point guard – or backup minutes, for that matter.
Van Gundy and his front office had a solid handle on Jackson before making the trade. It's why they were so pleased to be able to get him and confident before he donned the Pistons No. 1 jersey that they wanted to commit to him for the long haul. Most of what Van Gundy's seen so far has reaffirmed or refined his notions of what Jackson can and should be, not opened his eyes to anything one way or the other.
"The big thing with him is his aggressiveness and pushing the ball in transition and being aggressive on his pick and rolls," Van Gundy said. "I think when he does that, he's pretty effective. When he's just sort of playing with the ball and a little more tentative, then he runs himself into problems. He overdribbles at times, gets down in traffic. When he's on the attack north-south, I think he's very, very good."
Jackson's bouts of uncertainty come from an understandable source. As Tayshaun Prince pointed out after his dynamic performance against Memphis, he's playing with wildly different personnel than he did in Oklahoma City, where the attack was heavily perimeter oriented. All point guards are put in better situations when surrounded by multiple shooting threats, but Jackson perhaps more than most given how his size and quickness should make him a lethal penetrator given the room to operate that perimeter shooting threats would command.
Beyond that, Van Gundy understands that Jackson arrived under trying circumstances, finally getting the opportunity to start that he craved and playing for a new contract.
Jackson admitted this week that he can "get in my own head" to his detriment, overthinking and worrying too much about pleasing everyone on his flank rather than just playing to his instincts.
On top of that, throw in Jackson's emotional nature. Remember how he hyperventilated in his Pistons debut? Remember how he admitted sobbing for joy when news of the trade reached him? He's dealt with the pressure of performing in huge playoff games, but this is different – proving himself to near strangers in a situation largely of his own creation. Behind the scenes, his teammates, coaches and the support staff see a player who so badly wants to shrink the acclimation process, be one of the guys and please everyone.
"You don't know what a guy is going through and what's in his mind," Van Gundy said. "There's a lot going on in a new situation – new teammates to learn, new system to learn. And then all the other stuff, the emotions of the situation and wanting to prove yourself as a starter and the whole thing. There's just a ton of stuff going on."
Figuring out all of that stuff – and figuring out what the Pistons have in Reggie Jackson and how best to fill in the gaps around him and the other young franchise cornerstones certain to be back next season, Drummond and Caldwell-Pope at the front of that line – tops the agenda for Stan Van Gundy's next 14 games to finish his first season as Pistons coach.