Rodney McGruder

Keith Langlois

It’s really not as easy as Rodney McGruder makes it look. You’re not supposed to sit at the end of the bench for weeks at a time, then doff your warmups and go from 0 to 100 against the best basketball players in the world at the snap of fingers.

It’s maybe the least of all reasons why the Pistons have brought McGruder back two straight summers upon hitting free agency, but it’s an important one for a team of teenagers and 20-somethings to see the example of extreme professionalism McGruder embodies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. He’s a pro’s pro who fits on any team in any era.

Here's a look at McGruder’s past, present and future:

PROFILE: 6-foot-4 guard, 31 years old, 7 NBA seasons

2022-23 STATS: 5.7 points and 2.3 rebounds on 40.8 percent shooting and 42.3 percent 3-point shooting in 16.4 minutes a game over 32 games

STATUS: McGruder signed a reported one-year contract with the Pistons following the 2021-22 season as a free agent and will be a free agent again this off-season.

DID YOU KNOW?: As an NBA rookie, McGruder was a key member of the 2016-17 Miami Heat team that began the season 11-30 but finished 30-11 to wind up with a .500 record. McGruder started 65 games for that team and played 25 minutes a game, both career highs.

A LOOK BACK: McGruder grew up in Washington, D.C., – his father and Pistons general manager Troy Weaver ran in the same circles and McGruder has known Weaver all his life – but finished his high school career in Jacksonville, Fla., before landing at Kansas State for a decorated four-year college career. McGruder started his last three seasons for the Wildcats and was honored on the Big 12 All-Conference teams in each one, going from third team as a sophomore to second team as a junior and first team as a senior when he averaged 15.6 points and logged nearly 34 minutes a game. He went undrafted in 2013 and played in Hungary for one season and the G League for two years before fighting his way into the NBA with the Miami Heat. McGruder spent nearly three full seasons in Miami but was waived late in the 2018-19 season in a move to spare the Heat from paying luxury tax. He was claimed by the Los Angeles Clippers off waivers and played all of the 2019-20 season with them before being involved in a three-team trade that saw the Pistons send Luke Kennard to Los Angeles and receive the 19th pick in the 2020 draft used on Saddiq Bey in addition to McGruder. He’s spent the past three seasons with the Pistons, playing 99 games with 16 starts.

THE SEASON THAT WAS: The Pistons brought McGruder back by signing him in early August to a one-year deal for his versatility, professionalism and rare ability to endure long periods of inactivity but hit the ground running when injuries or other circumstances require him to step into the lineup. That’s what McGruder did again, to no one’s surprise, in 2022-23. He played in only 21 of the season’s first 61 games, but when a wave of injuries struck in late February McGruder was thrown into the fray and produced without missing a beat. Over an 11-game stretch that began in late February, McGruder averaged 10.5 points in 28 minutes a game and shot 42.1 percent from the 3-point arc before suffering his own injury to his right foot. McGruder missed the season’s final nine games.

A LOOK AHEAD: McGruder finds himself in the same situation as the past two seasons, finishing the year on an expiring contract and heading to free agency. He has a number of qualities attractive to a wide swath of NBA teams – he can guard all along the perimeter, come in cold and knock down shots and, most of all, he’s universally regarded as an ideal teammate and mentor to young players. The fact Denver traded for McGruder in February 2022 – a deal later rescinded when Bol Bol failed his physical in Detroit – underscores McGruder’s desirability to contending teams. It wouldn’t be an upset if he lands a deal with one this summer in free agency, but McGruder understands his value to the Pistons and has been by all appearances content with his role here. A reunion remains very much a possibility. McGruder, at 31, is in no hurry to bring on his post-playing career, but he’s someone who clearly will have a future in the game whenever he takes off his uniform. Given his roots with Weaver, that could well be in Detroit.

MONEY QUOTE: “I respect that he’s so resilient. He comes to work every single day. He’s one of the first ones in the gym besides me – I make sure I beat him to the gym – but I just love how he’s such a positive person. I always look to talk to him about things I can do better. He’s just a great dude you want on your team. He’s a pro.” – Jaden Ivey in mid-March with McGruder helping carry the Pistons through an injury-riddled stretch

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Season Rewind: A pro’s pro, McGruder sets a tone for young Pistons teammates

Three quick observations from Monday night’s 103-94 loss to the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.

SOLID START – Marvin Bagley III made a solid first impression in his Pistons debut, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes. Bagley was the first big man off the bench, coming on at center for Isaiah Stewart with 4:24 left in the first quarter. He scored two quick baskets inside, the first on a nice spin move and the second using his length to make himself available for a Killian Hayes feed and scoring over the top of Washington’s defense. Bagley also played with Kelly Olynyk on the second unit where their versatility makes them virtually interchangeable. In the second half, Dwane Casey played Bagley for a longer stretch, leaving him in to play with the starers until bringing Isaiah Stewart back with a little less than five minutes to play. Bagley drew a charge and was called for a flagrant-1 foul for not giving Rui Hachimura room to land on a successful 3-point attempt, which resulted in a six-point Wizards possession. He came on at the same point of the third quarter and again scored a couple of quick baskets, including an impressive deep baseline hook. Bagley is enough of a scoring threat around the rim that he got to the foul line six times, though he made only two. The Pistons were within two points with six minutes to play, but a 9-0 Washington run ended by a Cory Joseph 3-pointer with two minutes left iced the win for the Wizards. Cade Cunningham, playing his second game since missing five with a hip pointer, started slowly and was limited to 12 first-half minutes by foul trouble, but got rolling in the third quarter. Dwane Casey challenged what would have been Cunningham’s fifth foul with 9:31 left in the third quarter and the call was overturned, Cunningham scored eight points in the next four minutes and finished with 12 points, four rebounds and four assists but shot just 5 of 16. 

SECOND UNIT STRUGGLE – With Marvin Bagley added to the mix, Trey Lyles and Josh Jackson subtracted and Frank Jackson out with back spasms, the Pistons had a new-look second unit that consisted of Bagley, Kelly Olynyk, Rodney McGruder, Hamidou Diallo and Killian Hayes. With Olynyk still struggling after returning from his stint with COVID-19 that came two games after his coming back from a 33-game absence with a knee injury, there’s not a lot of 3-point shooting with that mix while Frank Jackson is out. McGruder shoots 40 percent from the arc, though he’s played in only 31 games and averages 14 minutes. Hayes and Olynyk are both shooting less than 28 percent from three and Diallo is less than 25 percent on relatively low volume. Dwane Casey believes Bagley will grow into a floor-stretching big man, but so far he’s a career 30 percent 3-point shooter who’s at 24 percent this season. That unit scored four points in nearly five minutes to start the second quarter before Casey called timeout and rushed his starters back into the game. In the second half, Casey staggered the minutes to have Cory Joseph at point guard to start the fourth quarter with the bench unit. That move paid off. The bench chipped away at a nine-point deficit, cutting it to five with 7:18 to play when Casey began re-inserting his starters.

BEY WATCH – Saddiq Bey didn’t waste much time extending his streak of games with a 3-pointer made to 31, the fifth-longest active streak in the NBA. Bey scored 11 of the first 13 Pistons points and had 18 of their 50 first-half points on just 10 shots, hitting 3 of 6 from the 3-point arc. He finished with 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. One of Bey’s less heralded but vitally important attributes so far has been his durability. Bey didn’t play in the first game of his rookie season, held out of the rotation, but he’s played in 127 of 128 games since then and in all 57 so far this season. Not only that, he’s playing increasingly heavy minutes, leading the Pistons in minutes per game at 33.5 and coming into Monday’s game eighth in the NBA in total minutes for the season. Bey, named to the All-Rookie first team after being picked 19th in 2020, got off to a slow start this season, averaging 11.9 points and shooting 30 percent from the 3-point arc in his first 26 games. But since Dec. 16 – or about the time Jerami Grant was sidelined with a thumb injury and Bey’s role became magnified – he’s averaged 19.1 points and has shot better from the 3-point arc (37 percent) than he did overall (35 percent) prior to that.

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Wizards ruin Bagley’s Pistons debut with late run

It’s called the Chase Center because a large commercial bank paid a reported $300 million over 20 years to slap its name on the new home of the Golden State Warriors. Not really because the Pistons, like so many other visitors, spend most games in a futile chase of the NBA juggernaut.

In the opener of a four-game road trip, the Pistons made that chase impossible when they gave away too many possessions in the first half on their way to a 28-point halftime deficit. Eight second-quarter turnovers and nine first-half Golden State offensive rebounds is a lot of extra possessions for an offense that doesn’t need the help.

“Once they started seeing shots go in from the 3-point line, they started to get going,” Isaiah Stewart said. “I felt like in the second half, we did a better job knowing who was coming off pin-downs and off screens and doing a better job defensively. If we would’ve done that in the first half, it would’ve been a different game.”

The Warriors flirted with the NBA’s best record for nearly three months – and then welcomed Klay Thompson back after a 2½ -year absence off of knee and Achilles injuries. Thompson led Golden State with 21 points in 22 minutes on Tuesday. The Warriors played one superb half of offense, scoring 66 in their dominant first half, and two equally impressive halves defensively.

It’s that No. 1-rated Golden State defense, overshadowed by Steph Curry and the offensive wizardry that was at the heart of the three NBA titles with the Curry-Thompson-Draymond Green nucleus, that goes unheralded but has the Warriors in the hunt for a fourth championship. Green missed Tuesday’s game with a back injury but Golden State forced the Pistons into hurried or contested shots consistently anyway. At one point midway through the third quarter, the Pistons were 2 of 18 from the 3-point arc. They finished shooting 35 percent overall and 27 percent from three.

“They’re a very physical team,” Dwane Casey said. “You don’t think of Golden State as a physical team, but they are. They screen hard, they cut hard, they push off.”

Stewart managed his fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds while hitting 7 of 10 shots. Rodney McGruder, the veteran playing his first game with the Pistons since returning from Denver following the rescinded trade for Bol Bol, also hit 7 of 10 shots – 4 of 7 from three – to lead the Pistons with a season-high 19 points.

“Pro,” Casey said of McGruder. “He’s a pro. For him to come out and compete after being traded, stuck in Denver, not knowing what’s going to happen. I appreciate that. I know our organization appreciates his effort and how he approaches the game. This last part of the season is about figuring out the core – who is going to be here, who’s going to be a big part of our future. Rodney is setting the tone of being one of those vets you’ve got to have and tonight is a great example of it.”

“Being a pro’s pro, you have to have a stable foundation to lean on when things don’t go the way you want them to,” McGruder said of weathering the turbulence of the past 10 days. “My faith and what I depend on, that’s what allows me to be a pro.”

Bol reportedly failed his Pistons physical and it was reported on Tuesday that he would undergo surgery on his right foot and miss the next eight to 12 weeks. He was then reportedly traded to Boston as part of a three-way deal with Denver and San Antonio that helps Boston pare its luxury tax bill and sends shooter Bryn Forbes to the Nuggets to give Denver the minutes it had in mind for McGruder.

“It’s great to see him go out and ball,” Stewart said of getting the player he calls “my vet” back. “I’m sure it felt great for him. He’s an example of that true professional, coming in and just doing his job. That’s exactly what he did tonight.”

Stewart and McGruder aside, there weren’t a lot of bright spots for the Pistons on a night that saw them lose Killian Hayes to a right hip contusion after a second-quarter tumble. Casey said he’s unsure how the injury, which Hayes tested at halftime but couldn’t get to loosen up, will affect Hayes for the rest of the trip.

Take away Stewart and McGruder’s combined 14 buckets in 20 attempts and the rest of the team shot 16 of 65 or a shade under 25 percent. The Pistons outscored Golden State 48-36 in the second half and Casey at least liked the competitiveness and attention to detail on the defensive end that was missing in the first half.

“I was happy with our second half,” Casey said. “It was a great lesson against a championship-caliber team – how you have to come out ready to play offense and defense at that speed and with that physicality.”

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McGruder, Stewart stand out as Pistons fall to Warriors

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Three quick observations from Tuesday night’s 102-86 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center:

TOUGH GOING – If Phoenix was the frying pan, Golden State was the fire. One game after playing the team with the NBA’s best record, Phoenix, the Pistons opened a four-game Western road swing against the team with the NBA’s second-best record, Golden State. With Klay Thompson back in the fold and Steph Curry the mid-season MVP favorite, the Warriors hit 6 of 9 from the 3-point line in the first quarter to soften up the Pistons defensively and then their offense unraveled with eight second-quarter turnovers. When the dust settled on halftime, the Pistons trailed by 28 points. Golden State expanded it to 34 early in the third quarter before the Pistons started to chip away. The Pistons came into the game 5-4 in January with a striking contrast in their defensive yields in wins vs. losses. In the five wins, the Pistons held opponents to just 103.4 points per game on 40 percent shooting; in the four losses, Pistons opponents averaged a whopping 131.5 points and made 55 percent of their shots. Golden State didn’t approach the high end but didn’t need to after rolling to 66 first-half points, which put it on pace for 132. Killian Hayes played nine first-half minutes, leaving the game about midway through the second quarter. Hayes hit the floor hard under the basket midway through the second quarter, left the game soon after and was ruled out with a right hip contusion.

McGRUDER RETURNS – With last week’s trade of Bol Bol rescinded, Rodney McGruder was back in uniform for the first time since returning to the Pistons. And McGruder was back on the second unit, too, taking the spot that Cassius Stanley had occupied. Stanley returned to the Motor City Cruise and scored 30 points on Tuesday night as the Cruise scored a home win over the College Park Skyhawks. McGruder wound up leading the Pistons, scoring a season-high 19 points while hitting 7 of 10 shots and 4 of 7 from the 3-point arc. It was reported on Tuesday that Bol had elected to undergo surgery on his right foot that is expected to sideline him for eight to 12 weeks. Bol, 22, missed most of his only college season at Oregon in 2018-19 because of an injury to his left foot. The injury was one reason why Bol, considered a potential top-five pick to start that season, fell to 44th. The trade was rescinded when Bol reportedly failed his physical. Later Tuesday, Bol was reportedly included in a three-way trade that sent him to Boston along with P.J. Dozier. Bryn Forbes went to Denver from San Antonio in the deal and Juancho Hernangomez went from Boston to San Antonio with the Spurs also picking up a second-round pick from Denver.

A GOOD PROBLEM – As a coach who only recently had to cobble together a team that was down to three players on standard contracts and eight others plucked from the G League on emergency 10-day deals, Dwane Casey won’t complain about having to find minutes for guys who deserve them. But with Kelly Olynyk’s return imminent after a two-month absence and Trey Lyles providing consistent and efficient scoring punch off the bench while playing out of position at center, Casey will get creative if need be in finding minutes for Lyles. He talked on Tuesday about his ideas on using Lyles and Olynyk together and create matchup advantages. Lyles finished with 13 points and five rebounds against Golden State, hitting 9 of 12 free throws. Lyles’ on/off numbers for the year show the impact he has on the Pistons offensively. With Lyles on the floor, the Pistons have an offensive rating of 106.3; when he sits, it drops to 97.3. Over his last 10 games coming into Tuesday, Lyles had averaged 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds on 50 percent shooting.

Rodney McGruder

Season Rewind: A pro’s pro, McGruder sets a tone for young Pistons teammates

Wizards ruin Bagley’s Pistons debut with late run

McGruder, Stewart stand out as Pistons fall to Warriors

Pistons get sunk early in loss to surging Warriors