Isaiah Livers

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Keith Langlois

If you wondered how much the Pistons believed Isaiah Livers was missed while out all of training camp and the first month and 14 games of the regular season, the proof came at crunch time of his first game back.

On a minutes restriction and having the sort of shooting night someone getting dropped into the middle of an NBA season might be expected to endure, Livers was entrusted with winning-time minutes against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

“His ability to stay in front of the ball is going to help us and his versatility is going to help us,” Monty Williams said. “We just love his ability to space the floor, to play in point-five (taking a half-second to make a decision to shoot, pass or dribble). He’s a good passer. We’re happy to have that kind of size and versatility in the rotation.”

Livers has endured a series of relatively minor injuries – hip, shoulder, ankle – in his two-plus NBA seasons, just enough to knock him off stride. When he’s managed to string stretches of injury-free weeks together, the flashes have been tantalizing. Livers offers a coveted combination of size, athleticism, 3-point shooting, defensive versatility and basketball IQ.

That package of traits makes Livers an easy fit in virtually any conceivable lineup Williams might conjure. Livers’ ability to slide his feet on the perimeter yet contest shots at the rim caught Williams’ eye in the full-court scrimmaging the Pistons engaged in during voluntary workouts ahead of training camp. It was in one such run that Livers came down on a teammate’s foot and suffered a Grade 3 sprain, the most severe.

The Pistons might have survived Livers’ absence if injuries hadn’t also knocked Bojan Bogdanovic and Monte Morris out before the first preseason game and rippled through the rest of the roster. With 70 man-games lost to injury, most in the NBA, we’ve yet to see the Pistons that Williams envisioned and spent his off-season tailoring schemes to best suit.

In addition to the injuries to Bogdanovic, Morris and Livers – their leading returning scorer, anticipated second-team quarterback and most versatile two-way wing, three key rotation pieces – the Pistons have also played six games without Alec Burks, seven without Jalen Duren, seven and counting without Joe Harris, four without Jaden Ivey and one without Killian Hayes.

But getting Livers back cracks the door and news came Tuesday afternoon that Duren and Bogdanovic might be on his heels.

The reinforcements will open up entire chapters of Williams’ playbook. To this point, the Pistons have been forced to play lineups at either end of the spectrum – two big men sometimes, three and even four guards other times – with a lack of wing depth. Livers and Bogdanovic address that problem. It hurts that Morris will be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks for a quad injury after receiving a platement-rich plasma injection last week, but the emergence of rookie Marcus Sasser softens the blow at least a bit.

Beyond the on-paper boost the cavalry promises, there’s the intangible lift coming for a team that felt chemistry and camaraderie were its secret weapons to combat the youth and inexperience that history shows are unkind to NBA teams.

“Liv brings an energy boost for us,” Ivey said after Monday’s last-minute loss to the Nuggets. “We were happy to see him back out there tonight. He’s a great shooter, but on the defensive end, that’s a given what he brings. It’s very crucial for our team.”

General manager Troy Weaver built the roster to give Williams defense and depth, but the depth was gutted and key defensive pieces like Duren and Livers have been unavailable too often to get an idea of what the Williams-led Pistons really look like. Livers was the first to get hurt, starting a domino effect. The basketball gods owe it to the Pistons that Livers’ return to health also triggers a trend.

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Livers back, Duren & Bogdanovic close as Pistons hope to turn a corner

Monty Williams has lauded his team’s resilience several times over the three-plus weeks since training camp opened. It’s going to be tested publicly – and severely – a bit too soon for anyone’s comfort as the Pistons and their highly sought first-year coach tip off the 2023-24 season.

The Pistons will open the regular season at Miami on Wednesday, play at Charlotte on Friday – they’re one of just five NBA teams to play their first two games on the road – and get their home opener on Saturday as the first of their NBA-high 15 back-to-backs. They’ll turn right back around on Sunday to head to Oklahoma City for a Monday game, their fourth in six days.

And on Tuesday came news that they’ll do it all without three key rotation pieces: Bojan Bogdanovic, Monte Morris and Isaiah Livers, each of whom will be re-evaluated in either three weeks (Morris) or four (Bogdanovic, Livers).

Coaches are reticent to address injuries and scheduling for fear of players allowing the seeds of excuses to flower and Williams established his boundaries on both fronts after Tuesday’s practice and before the Pistons embarked on the season’s first road trip.

“We’ve dealt with it all of camp,” he said of the absences of Bogdanovic, Morris and Livers, “so our guys have played hard and done their best to execute and sustain momentum. Obviously, you want to have those guys back, but all teams are going to deal with some sort of injury this year.”

And of a young team facing the unusual challenge of playing its first two games on the road – the first time the Pistons have done so since 2014 – Williams said, “It could be eight games on the road. Everybody’s going to play the same schedule. We have more back-to-backs – we have to change that. You can only change that by competing every night, changing the way the league looks at you. As far as taking a team on the road, everybody’s going to do it. If we were the only ones doing it the whole season, then I’d be crying. But everybody’s going to deal with the same schedule.”

Of those still standing, Williams’ enthusiasm for the intent players have put on display is echoed by Isaiah Stewart, whom Williams has called “the heart and soul” of the team.

“Just how bad we want it,” Stewart said of his impression of the team through training camp. “It’s just a different feeling. Everybody’s bought in. Everybody has two feet in. We’re working every day to try to come in and live up to that standard that coach Monty set for us. That’s been great for us. He’s been pushing us to be the best version of ourselves every day.”

What will the Pistons be missing without Bogdanovic, Morris and Livers? Experience – Bogdanovic and Morris are two of only four players on the roster older than 25 – and 3-point shooting. All three are above-average 3-point shooters on high volume, combining for more than 13 3-point attempts per game last season and all comfortably exceeding the league average in accuracy.

Is it likely the Pistons will shoot significantly fewer 3-pointers while three of their best and most prolific shooters rehabilitate?

“It could be. But that’s OK,” Williams said. “I think scoring and setting your defense can make up for some of that. You don’t want to be at a minus-20 deficit on three attempts with your opposing team. At the same time, I’m not a guy that just wants to jack up threes for the sake of jacking up threes. Efficient scoring trumps that. We’re going to play a little bit differently because we don’t have Bojan and the guys who are out, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t be efficient.”

Bogdanovic was penciled in as a starter and his value to that unit starts with his 3-point shooting and the spacing it provides not only Cade Cunningham and the guards but also Jalen Duren as a lob threat and offensive rebounder. But it goes beyond Bogdanovic’s 3-point shooting and spacing. His scoring versatility – making plays off the dribble, posting up mismatches, manufacturing shots in short-clock situations, getting to the foul line – are the things that grease the gears of offense.

Morris was headed for a similarly critical role with the second unit as a stabilizing influence best encapsulated by the fact he’s never averaged more than 1.0 turnover per game in any of his six seasons. Livers, too, likely would have been a bellwether for the bench unit for his sturdy defense and 3-point threat.

Alec Burks and Joe Harris are the only two Pistons older than 25 available and both qualify as elite 3-point shooters. Williams has said he wants to field starting and bench units that blend veterans with the many young players – seven, or half the roster, 22 or younger. Both Burks and Harris have either extensive or recent injury histories, so Williams will be mindful of their use but they’ll be leaned on to bridge the weeks until cavalry arrives.

In the meantime, Stewart, entering his fourth season and universally acknowledged for his toughness and selflessness, understands that teammates will look to him as a barometer through good times and bad.

“When times get rough, I feel like that’s got to be a part of the game that we have to be great in,” he said. “That’s the part we’re going to continue to grow in. When we meet rough stages, continue to battle through it. I feel like coach Mont and the coaches do a great job of creating that environment in practice so when we feel it in a game, we’re prepared for it.”

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Injuries, road tests challenge Pistons as Williams era launches

It was James Wiseman’s vast potential that motivated the Pistons to make a significant move at the trade deadline. It was Isaiah Livers’ presence that comforted them enough to sacrifice Saddiq Bey in the process.

Livers provides the 3-point threat Bey brought to the Pistons and melds it with superb defensive awareness and versatility on top of perhaps the best basketball IQ – at least with Cade Cunningham sidelined by injury – among the young core players Troy Weaver has brought to the organization.

Livers, dogged by frustrating, nagging injuries that have delayed a full-fledged breakthrough during his first two NBA seasons, put all of that on display in Monday’s 110-104 loss to Portland when he matched his career high with 17 points. He scored efficiently, forced Damian Lillard to launch 28 shots to get his 31 points, put the ball on the floor to make plays and got himself open often enough to help Jaden Ivey set a new personal best with 13 assists.

Bey’s departure and Bojan Bogdanovic’s absence – he was one of six Pistons to miss the game, sitting with Achilles tendon pain in both legs that demands caution – gave Livers the license to claim more minutes and a bigger role. Some of the plays normally run for Bogdanovic went to Livers. That he handled the added responsibility, uh, responsibly is a promising window into the future for the 24-year-old Michigan native.

Livers hit 3 of 7 3-pointers and 7 of 12 shots, both figures depressed by two last-minute 3-point launches with the Pistons scrambling from behind. In 39 minutes, he committed only two turnovers, grabbed five rebounds and assisted on two buckets. Livers can be a 3-and-D savant, but don’t limit him to only that. He made Portland pay a handful of times for overaggressive closeouts.

“When you get the shooter claim,” he said, using air quotes around shooter, “they think all you’re going to do is sit there and shoot. I have a lot more to my game I’m going to continue to show these last 20, 15 games. Coaches, everybody encourages me to. Once you have the green light to shoot, the world’s yours.”

The addition of Wiseman to go with Jalen Duren, Marvin Bagley III and Isaiah Stewart means the Pistons are likely to play with two big men half or more of the time for the foreseeable future. A big part of Livers’ appeal is how he fits in any lineup. The Pistons are going to need to surround those two-big lineups with shooters who can defend. That’s Livers.

He can start and complement the big lineup and be a sidekick for Cunningham or come off the bench and fill a more central role as he asserts himself more forcefully. In either case, Livers’ trustworthiness makes him the kind of player any coach would feel comfortable playing on closing units.

He'll also benefit as much as anyone from Cunningham’s return next season. Livers’ sense of spacing and movement off the ball meshes ideally with Cunningham’s knack for tilting defenses and exploiting open spaces. Dwane Casey was encouraged by the off-the-dribble element Livers used effectively against Portland.

“They’re going to run him off the line. He did a good job tonight of attacking their force. They closed out short to him; he attacked their feet, got to the rim and made a play. It’s the combination he has to have. I thought Livers had one of his better games tonight both offensively and defensively.”

Over the season’s final 17 games, Livers intends to pile similar performances atop each other to cement his place in the pecking order for next season and beyond.

“That’s what it’s about, especially being young guys,” he said. “We got some old guys out right now. This is the time to compete. This is your time to shine. Guys are doing it every day, getting their work in and being ready to play every day.”

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Livers flashes the promise that emboldened the Pistons to bet on his future

If the Pistons were giving out game balls for their win over Minnesota, they’ll first have to increase the equipment budget.

One goes to Saddiq Bey for the 18 first-half points to allow the Pistons to take a one-point halftime lead after spotting the Timberwolves the game’s first 10 points. Another goes to Bojan Bogdanovic, whose 13 third-quarter points sparked the dominant 36-23 stretch that put the Pistons in command.

Save one for Nerlens Noel, who was fourth among four big men in the playing time pecking order only because the organizational priority was the development of Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Marvin Bagley III. With all three out, Noel’s four blocked shots and three steals in the first 10 minutes of that third quarter were every bit as critical at the defensive end as Bogdanovic’s star turn at the other end.

Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes will share a game ball, which would be symbolic for the way they shared quarterbacking duties and the basketball with teammates. Each scored 18 points while splitting 17 assists (nine for Hayes, eight for Ivey) and seven rebounds (four for Ivey, three for Hayes) about as evenly as possible. Hamidou Diallo gets one, too, more for the gumption to take on the assignment of guarding 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert down the stretch than for the 18 points contributed off the bench.

And make sure to designate one for Isaiah Livers. Three points and four rebounds on two shots in 18 minutes might seem underwhelming, but Livers is on the list in part to reward his diligence during the six weeks he missed with a shoulder sprain though more for snuffing out the last best hope Minnesota had at a comeback.

If the Timberwolves were going to get back in Wednesday’s game – one they expected to win based on the four-game win streak they took to Detroit, the gutted state of their opponent’s frontcourt and the sting they still felt from blowing an 18-point lead to lose at home to the Pistons on New Year’s Eve – it was likely going to be star Anthony Edwards shooting them back in it.

Edwards played 10 first-half minutes, then shut things down after being listed questionable before the game with hip soreness. But when the Pistons took control in the third quarter, Edwards was deemed fit to play. For the last two minutes of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth, Livers draped himself all over Edwards. In those seven minutes, Edwards was blanked, missing two shots.

When Livers went to the bench with seven minutes left and the Pistons ahead by 20 points, Edwards immediately came to life. He scored 15 points after that, hitting 6 of 10 shots, but it was too little, too late.

“He did a good job,” Casey said. “His attention to detail is the key. A lot of times we get caught up in a game, start going fast. A great shooter like Edwards sees it go through that first time, then he’s hot and it’s hard to turn that off. His attention to detail kind of set the tone along with Nerlens in the third quarter.”

Defensive stopper wasn’t the role anyone had in mind for Livers when Troy Weaver, using the pick the Pistons got from New York for Derrick Rose, drafted the Michigan star with the 42nd&nbsp;pick in 2021. Livers’ calling card is his 3-point stroke on a lithe 6-foot-7 frame, but he saw a path to a certain role by embracing the opportunity to be a shutdown defender.

“I take pride in that and you look around,” Livers said, glancing at the nameplates above adjoining stalls in the Pistons locker room, “not to say nobody in here can guard, but I just want to be that guy coach Casey says, ‘go guard Luka (Doncic), go guard Devin Booker, go guard D(onovan) Mitch(ell). Slow ’em down, use your body, use your quickness.’ I enjoy it. It’s fun. You play defense, the offense will take care of itself.”

To be sure, it was while guarding Dallas’ MVP candidate Doncic in a Dec. 1 overtime win when Livers, crashing into a screen, suffered an AC joint injury to the right shoulder. Two weeks later, nearing his return, he suffered a setback when he got a little too aggressive in his rehabilitation.

“We were playing (three on three). Definitely, totally my idea,” Livers said. “I told this dude, ‘Let’s test it out for real, come set a screen on me.’ Guarding a G League guy, came off – boom! It was a regular hit like I took today. Just wasn’t ready at the time. I applaud them. They did the right job and set me down a little longer. I didn’t want to sit that long, but they were just being more cautious with it because it’s my shooting arm, too.”

Injuries have been the obstacle that’s kept Livers from flowering into a more prominent role, starting with the broken foot and subsequent surgery he endured in March 2021 to end his Michigan career. That limited him to 19 games as an NBA rookie. Then came a hip injury in training camp that spilled over into the first two games of the regular season. Then the shoulder. Is Livers snakebit by the injury bug?

“Man, I’m human. I think about that,” he said. “The foot thing, out of my jurisdiction. That’s a wear and tear. The hip thing, definitely on me. I’ve got to learn to take off days and take care of my body. I’m in the gym too much, running around too much. The shoulder thing, I was playing great D on Luka, moving screen, bad luck. End of the day, I know one of the three things I can control, so that makes me look forward to a better future.”

Before the Pistons imagined Livers as a defensive stopper, they valued him for his shooting and his basketball IQ. He’s an easy fit in any lineup and his ebullient personality makes him an easy fit in any locker room. Just as Livers stayed engaged as a rookie during his months-long absence, he did so again during his shoulder rehabilitation.

“When I was out, they did a good job just talking basketball, keeping me engaged. Not that they needed to, but that’s what you want to hear from your teammates. You want to hear they care. They want you in the game. Like Killian, he was probably one of the happiest dudes that I was back today because I get to go guard the best player.”

Livers had just moved into the starting lineup at the time of his injury, in large measure for his emergence as a one-on-one defensive ace. He opened eyes during an October game when the Pistons, out of options, gave Livers one of the NBA’s most impossible assignments.

“We put him on Trae Young kind of out of necessity,” Casey said. “He embraced that role. That’s when we first started seeing him in that role of being a defender on a lot of positions. Not only at point guard, ones, twos, threes and fours. That’s something he’s developed and kind of embraced, which is a great thing.”

For taking on those tough jobs and for the way his easygoing personality lights up the locker room, his coaches and teammates are delighted to see Livers back in uniform.

“I love Liv, man. That’s one of my good pals,” Ivey said. “Just happy to see him back on the court. It was good seeing him out there tonight and he’s going to bring a high level of energy for us as a team. That’s what he does. If he’s not knocking down shots on the offensive end, he’s definitely going to bring 100 percent on the defensive end.”

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On a night of many stars, Pistons don’t overlook value of Livers’ return

The Pistons didn’t have to travel far to scout their first pick of the NBA draft’s second round, Michigan’s Isaiah Livers. Livers, a Kalamazoo native and Michigan’s 2017 Mr. Basketball, was taken with the 42nd overall pick – the first of three second-round picks the Pistons carried into the draft.

They stayed in the Big Ten for their pick at 52, as well, grabbing national Player of the Year Luka Garza, and finished their night by taking 7-footer Balsa Koprivica, a Serbian native who spent the past two seasons at Florida State.

Livers, 23, spent four seasons at Michigan, starting 69 of 119 career games, and averaged 13.1 points and 6.0 rebounds a game in his senior season, one ended after 23 games by a foot injury that cost him the opportunity to compete with the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament. Livers is an outstanding shooter who hit 43.1 percent from the 3-point arc and 87 percent from the 3-point line.

He’ll likely be a candidate to sign a two-way contract – that’s what Saben Lee, the 38th pick in the 2020 draft, signed for his rookie season with the Pistons – and play much of the 2021-22 season with the Motor City Cruise, who debut as the Pistons G League affiliate this fall in a new arena on the campus of Wayne State University. Garza and Koprivica could also be candidates for that type of deal, though each NBA team is limited to two two-way contracts.

The man who recruited Livers to Michigan out of Kalamazoo Central High, John Beilein, now serves as the Pistons senior adviser for player development. Beilein is renowned for his ability as a shooting instructor and all-around offensive innovator and helped Livers develop into a career 41 percent 3-point shooter at Michigan who projects as a weapon in catch-and-shoot situations and was especially deadly from the corners, a staple of Dwane Casey’s offense.

Garza, like Livers, was a four-year college player who put up eye-popping numbers for the Hawkeyes. Garza, 22, averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds as a junior and 24.1 points and 8.7 rebounds as an Iowa senior, starting 118 of 127 games over his career. Garza swept the national player of the year awards – Wooden, Naismith, NABC, Associated Press, The Sporting News.

Koprivica, 21, came to the United States in 2015 to play high school basketball in Florida, eventually winding up at Montverde Academy – where Cunningham also played. At Florida State last season, he averaged 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 20 minutes a game.

The Pistons went into the draft holding picks 37, 42 and 52 but before the draft’s 8 p.m. start and their selection of Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 pick, they executed a trade – which can’t become official until after the NBA moratorium lifts on August 6 – that saw them ship 37 to Charlotte in exchange for the 57th pick.

Livers, 6-foot-7¼,  gives the Pistons another young wing player with great size to go with Cunningham, Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey, Josh Jackson and Hamidou Diallo. The Pistons won’t have more than a few roster spots available for rookies, barring significant trade movement, after accounting for the relatively few free-agent departures expected and the need to add veteran free agents to fill needs at point guard and among their corps of big men.

But if they create the space to accommodate their three second-round rookies, they’ll be making way for players with plenty of experience under their belts.

Isaiah Livers

Livers back, Duren & Bogdanovic close as Pistons hope to turn a corner

Injuries, road tests challenge Pistons as Williams era launches

Livers flashes the promise that emboldened the Pistons to bet on his future

On a night of many stars, Pistons don’t overlook value of Livers’ return

Big Ten stars Livers, Garza highlight Pistons second-round picks