It’s not that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was brow-furrowing bad in the season’s first seven games. He was largely the player he’d been in Stan Van Gundy’s first two seasons: first rate defensively, up and down on the offensive end.
But in the last 14 games, enough of a sample size to at least entertain the thought a corner has been turned, he’s been All-Star level good and stamped himself as a candidate for Most Improved Player.
His numbers since scoring a season-high 27 at Phoenix on Nov. 9: 17.3 points a game to lead the Pistons over that time on 41.5 percent 3-point shooting to go with 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, all while still drawing the most challenging perimeter defensive assignment or on call to hose off an especially hot hand.
“It’s a product of what he brings to the gym every day,” Van Gundy said. “The guy’s a worker. He’s a leaner. He’s gotten better throughout his career and he brings great energy all the time. He’s still a very young guy, which people forget. He’s a very, very young guy, but he’s played really well. I hope he keeps it going.”
Nobody was more integral to the 3-0 road trip that wrapped Friday night – wins over Eastern Conference contenders Charlotte, Boston and Atlanta – than Caldwell-Pope, who kicked it up another notch. He averaged 22 points, shooting 55 percent (11 of 20) from the 3-point arc, to go with 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists. And he had to guard front-line scorers in all three games in Nic Batum, Avery Bradley and Kyle Korver.
Batum finished with eight points. Bradley’s final scoring tally of 14 included three 3-pointers in the final two minutes when Caldwell-Pope had been switched on to Isaiah Thomas. And Korver was limited to seven points and 2 of 8 shooting.
As Caldwell-Pope’s level of play has been elevated, Van Gundy has put more of the offense in his hands.
“No question. We’ve called a lot more for him this year.”
Sometimes that spills over into other areas of a player’s game. Van Gundy has seen it cause a spike in turnovers as players unaccustomed to handling the ball more than occasionally learn to manage their freedom. Or it can lead to a letdown in defensive intensity. Neither has been the case with Caldwell-Pope, who turns 24 in February.
“He still gets the toughest matchup every night and he works hard with it,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a highly conditioned guy and a high-energy guy and he needs to be to take on those roles.”
Caldwell-Pope, as all players would, finds encouragement in his coach showing more trust in him by expanding his responsibilities. But he says he’s learned how to insert himself into the fray of a game without having his number called.
“Not just that. Also rebounding the ball, getting assists or just pushing in transition when I do get the rebound. Other things tie into me getting my rhythm throughout the game.”
He started the season with nine points combined in the first two games, missing all four of his 3-point attempts, then strung together four pretty good games in which he averaged 17 points before bottoming out with a one-point game as the Pistons were thumped to open a four-game road trip against the Los Angeles Clippers. Since then, he’s been lights out. The uneven start begged the question of whether his unresolved contract status – Caldwell-Pope and the Pistons failed to reach agreement on an extension before the Oct. 31 deadline, meaning he’ll become a restricted free agent July 1 – was weighing on him.
“No, not at all,” he said. “It was just about me performing. The opening of the season didn’t turn out how I wanted it to turn out, but I kind of picked it up.”
When Van Gundy was hired by Tom Gores in May 2014, he knew he had a franchise cornerstone in Andre Drummond but he didn’t know quite what to make of Caldwell-Pope, coming off his rookie season. They’re now the only two holdovers from the roster Van Gundy inherited and have been since the start of the 2015-16 season. It didn’t take his new coach much time to figure out Caldwell-Pope gave him plenty to work with.
“You don’t have to have him for long to see how hard he plays and how hard he works,” Van Gundy said. “You know he’s a coachable guy, so it’s about learning and maturing and seeing more situations in games. He’s a guy who’s always going to be able to look in the mirror and feel pretty good that he’s done everything he could. As a coach, you have a responsibility to those types of guys to try to teach them and help them, because they’re doing everything they can.”
And Caldwell-Pope earned every minute Van Gundy plays him – down a few this year, still a team-high 33.1 per game – and every play call he directs to him.
“He never says anything. He just goes out and plays,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think I’ve had one complaint from him in two-plus years. Nothing. He’ll get upset like anybody at something you say to him during the game, but as far as ‘I need the ball; I need more shots,’ nah. I’ve never had any of that from him.”
Just consistently reliable and smothering defense and, now, the same consistency and dynamic impact at the offensive end. The Pistons have survived Reggie Jackson’s absence for the first quarter of the season and find themselves just a game back of the No. 4 playoff seed with an 11-10 record. Nobody’s been any more integral to that start – in the face of the busiest and toughest schedule of any Eastern Conference team – than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.