Why Jaden Ivey might decide the Detroit Pistons’ future | The Film Room

Why Jaden Ivey might decide the Detroit Pistons’ future | The Film Room

Jaden Ivy might be the most important player on the Detroit Pistons and nobody is talking about him. He was taking huge leaps on the offensive end last year before he unfortunately broke his fibula on January 1st. But now he’s fully healthy and rejoining a solid playoff team in his own Detroit Pistons. But after losing a few key pieces this off season, Ivy could either step into a larger role waiting for him, becoming Detroit’s second offensive option, or struggle to find his footing at the worst possible time as he heads towards free agency for the first time in his career. [Music] The Detroit business took the leap last year into relevance. Now they need to stay in the conversation. A drastically weakened East means that there is room to really make some noise. But as said, this team got worse in free agency. Dennis Shruder played well in Detroit, but has been replaced by Caris Levert, who in my opinion is worse at that same role. Malik Beasley was one of the best shooters in the NBA last year, but he’s been replaced by Duncan Robinson again, who’s worst. And the team lost some good shooting role players like Tim Hardway Jr. and Simone Fonteo. And those guys won’t kill you for not being there, but they’re very dependable veterans, especially if they’re being replaced by Assar Thompson and Ron Holland, who shot 22 and 24% from three, respectively. We also saw how fragile some of the East contenders were when the Pacers ran all the way to the NBA finals. On top of that, Achilles tears to Jason Tatum and Paris Hallebertton mean that there’s a really unique opportunity here that the Pistons are primed to take if someone like Ivy can step up. [Music] Jaden Ivy can be really, really good on offense. He excels at getting downhill and he just has an absolute insane, exciting package of layups in his game. My favorite plays to watch are where the offense gets him catching the ball just as he’s able to ram his defender into a screen, get into the paint, and just do some magic. He’s really confident at picking up his dribble early on these actions going into his midi or floater game, which makes him a really dynamic offensive piece. When the clock is running low on a sideline out of bounds, Detroit have often put him in the opposite half court and let him get a real running start into a screen and just you hope that he can do something in the paint. If he’s making shots, combined with his love for difficult layups over defenders, he he honestly looks a bit like Donovan Mitchell, like a a short but stout offensive guard who forces his will amongst the tallest players in the league. But when he’s not making his shots, he’s a lot more like Malik Monk minus the jump shot. He’s a slight but small offensive guard who needs the extra space created by his elite jumper. Thankfully, last season, Jadden Harvey was a great catch and shoot three-point shooter, making 45% on start shots. And if he’s playing with another creator, like he almost always will be with Kate Cunningham, he can thrive as a secondary creator. Adding to that, Ivy has a really good sense for when to cut. You so often see him just sneaking into an open paint for easy points. And because he’s got that innate ability to know when the paint’s open, he’s always on the lookout himself while dribbling. If there’s an easy pass to the paint, he’ll probably make it. Last season, he averaged four assists a night with three turnovers, which are beautiful, nice round numbers for my voice over, but we probably won’t see those numbers rise too much next season. But I really think there is the potential there to find the open man, especially when he’s in those actions where he’s just caught he’s caught the ball off the catch and he’s rammed his player into the screen. He’s just so versatile at deciding when to pull the floater or drive all the way to the paint. And I I see it as an easy I don’t want to say easy, but I see it as an easy development for him to just maybe look to the corner or look to the paint or the raw man. But when it comes to these ball handling guards or ball dominant guards, a lot of the harder reads are exactly that hard. And while it may take a while to click, especially with K taking the bulk of the playmaking duties, there’s there’s potential there. Uh in 30 games last year, he was really confident driving to the paint and the numbers back it up. Uh injuries like the one that Ivy had on the 1st of January don’t usually limit a player’s explosion like a ligament injury. And a good example of this is Paul George’s gruesome leg injury in 2014 during a team USA scrimmage in Las Vegas. He came back better and was pretty much unaffected and he was just as explosive as he was before. Paul George at the time was 23 years old at the same age as Jaden Ivy right now. So there’s no reason to worry that he’s not going to be able to continue with these incredible finishes. For Ivy to really pop and maybe hit that ceiling of a Donovan Mitchell, like I said, he needs to become a great off the dribble shooter. And this is usually one of the hardest skills to develop for young guards. So I’m not expecting it to happen overnight, but he’s he didn’t shoot terribly on off the dribble threes. Uh, and even if it is just a few years away, Ivy can still be a great second option for this Detroit Pistons team as long as he just continues to thrive in his role. And I think the Pistons are going to put him in that position to thrive next season. Partially because they’re invested in him, partially because they got weaker in the offseason and they need him to do this. [Music] How does he fit with Kade Cunningham? Well, the simple answer is really well. Cade was third in the league in usage percentage according to cleaning the glass last season and that’s not so much a bad thing. He just had little to no help. Marcus Sassa is the new Monty Morris and I in my eyes. He’s a great backup but just that a backup. JBstaff should be starting Jaden and Kade together next season and staggering them so that there is always one on the court to handle the ball at all times. And when they do share the court, Ivy is a great catch and shoot three-point shooter. just under 75% of his threes were assisted on last year and he shot 45.2% on those shots according to NBA.com’s tracking data. As mentioned when talking about his offensive ceiling, his best situation is attacking off the catch. And sometimes he uses just his youthful first step to get past his man, but a lot of the time he’s attacking a scrambled defense in a variety of ways. It’s good for Ivy because that defense is getting scrambled by Kate Cunningham. And as long as Kate is healthy, he’s always going to be the lead ball handler in this team. And and while some might look to surround a dominant on ball player with heaps of offball maestros, there’s huge value in having two creators on the court at all times. And I think Ivy can be a perfect secondary creator next to Kate Cunningham. Especially as well because Kate Cunningham is a strong scorer who’s more than happy to make the right pass. He’s not just an elite scorer who makes the pass because their coach tells them to. He really does want to pass the ball. Did his teammates some great shots and he was in the top three in the league in assist percentage as well. [Music] Adding to the pressure of the upcoming season, Jaden Ivy is entering the final year of his rookie contract and with several young players on the roster, their books are quite clean right now. The Detroit Pistons can afford to give him his extension and go shopping in free agency next year. And if he’s owed a lot, that’s great for the team. It would mean that he played well enough to earn a bigger deal, maybe even up to his max. But right now, he’s still unproven. And the Pistons can offer him a contract extension right up till opening night next season. But I think it’s in both parties best interest to enter that season on an expiring. That’s for Ivy himself to prove that he deserves maybe his max or just a lot of money and so he can grow his value. And for the Pistons, you don’t want to sign this guy to an extension and not be able to trade him for the next couple of months because if an offer comes around and Ivy just isn’t popping off, you might want to move off from him while his value is still quite high. And as he is finishing his rookie contract, he’s going to be a restricted free agent. And that’s a bit of a cursed term if this free agency as Jonathan Kaminga, Josh Giddy, Cam Thomas, and Quinton Grimes are all struggling to draw money out of their own teams or any other team. But next season’s free agency or next off seasonason’s free agency looks to be a hot one as several teams are gearing up to sign bigname free agents. So if Jaden Ivy does pop or quite frankly even if he just shows small flashes, the Pistons will probably be more than happy to pay him because Iivey’s going to go out there. There’s going to be some teams who miss on the big game hunting and free agency and say, “Well crap, we’ve got the counts paid. Let’s just throw an offer at Jaden Ivy.” So, this is going to be a much more favorable off season to be a restricted free agent. And I apologize to the affforementioned for good players. But yeah, this is this is all lining up for Jaden Ivy to just go to his team and say, “Hey, don’t let me go get an offer like Gordon Haywood did all those years ago and get pissed off with the Utah Jazz. Sign me. I’m good.” Nah. Anyway, all the more pressure this year. So, what’s it going to look like next season? It’s it’s unfortunate that an integral part of this team being the league Beasley is now out of the league. Obviously fortunate because he was rigging games, but it really threw out Detroit’s future plans. I’m sure Ivy has excelled in, albeit a small sample size last season as an offball shooter who can get into the paint and really disrupt a defense. Beasley would have been a more natural starting two next decade, making up for the lack of spacing elsewhere on the court. And these three guards would have actually been really interesting sharing the court at the same time. I don’t think they’re stopping anyone and they’re just praying that the bigs can make up for their perimeter weakness. But that’s a really exciting offensive trio. We’re probably going to say see the same stuff with Duncan Robinson, but again, Duncan Robinson just hasn’t had as amazing as a shooting season as Malik Beasley had and it’s going to be really hard to make up for some of the lack of shooting elsewhere on the roster. But now with the current Detroit Pistons, Ivy’s probably going to start on opening night. Cade will probably be guarding the best offensive option while Ivy takes the worst perimeter option and JB Big Staff as mentioned should stagger these two. So there’s always one ball dominant creator on the court. Again, this team is lacking in creators. But if Ivy can flash some all-star upside that saw him drafted so highly, there’s no reason why Detroit can’t be a top four seed next season. Maybe even have their own kind of magical Indiana Finals run. There are a lot more questions that need to be answered about this team by then, but the door is open if they can make it work. If Ivy can’t make shots in an elite level, if he can’t be their only creator on the court, there’s going to be another immense load on Cade Cunningham shoulders. And I can’t see this team getting any higher than the six seed. With that being the case, the front office might decide that the East is just too wide open to wait for a young upand cominging free agent to develop and trade him while his value is still relatively high. And that would be a huge shame because this is the situation for Jaden Ivy to explode in. And it’s going to be a huge season for Jaden Ivy. And the Pistons have a lot riding on it. He’s not just a swing piece, he’s the swing piece for this Detroit Pistons team.

In this video, we break down why Jaden Ivey’s development this season is crucial for the Detroit Pistons’ future. Can he fit next to Cade Cunningham? Should Detroit consider using him as a trade chip? And what does his ceiling really look like?

Let us know in the comments: Do you think Jaden Ivey will be part of the Pistons’ long-term future?

0:00 Intro
0:33 The stakes
1:32 Offensive ceiling
5:00 Fit with Cade Cunningham
6:35 Upcoming free agency
8:34 Long-term role or trade chip?

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Backing track courtesy of the supremely talented @g.ardnr @2badkiddo

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