{"id":509035,"date":"2026-01-01T03:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509035\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:44:13","slug":"pistons-notes-ivey-harris-thompson-sasser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/509035\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Notes: Ivey, Harris, Thompson, Sasser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/iveyja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jaden Ivey<\/a> has played 18 straight games for the Pistons after missing the start of the season due to knee surgery, but has only surpassed 20 minutes twice in that stretch. Detroit is likely to keep Ivey on the bench for the near future while ramping him up, writes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6922269\/2025\/12\/30\/jaden-ivey-pistons-nba-trade-deadline-mailbag\/?source=emp_shared_article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hunter Patterson in a mailbag for The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[There\u2019s] a plan in place for him to ramp up where he\u2019s comfortable, where he\u2019s confident, so that he can get back to playing the bulk minutes,\u201d Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff recently said about Ivey.<\/p>\n<p>Patterson notes that the advanced stats show Ivey to be a promising backcourt complement to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cunnica01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cade Cunningham<\/a> when the two have played together this season, citing their plus-13.3 net rating over 137 minutes. However, Patterson also says that the gravity that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robindu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Duncan Robinson<\/a> commands as a shooter could keep the veteran in the role over Ivey for the time being.<\/p>\n<p>Ivey is averaging 8.4 points on .470\/.407\/.808 shooting splits, carrying over the much-improved shooting he displayed in last year\u2019s season, which was also cut short by injuries.<\/p>\n<p>We have more from the Pistons:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harrito02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tobias Harris<\/a> left Tuesday\u2019s win over the Lakers after playing just six minutes due to a hip strain, according to Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/omarisankofa\/status\/2006218404534054914?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter link<\/a>). Sankofa notes that it was unclear when the injury was sustained. Patterson notes (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HunterPatterson\/status\/2006476568772874386?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">via Twitter<\/a>) that his status for Thursday\u2019s game against the Heat is doubtful due to left hip soreness.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompau01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ausar Thompson<\/a> refuses to stop working just because the games are done, writes <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.essentiallysports.com\/nba-active-basketball-news-detroit-pistons-ausar-thompson-talks-defending-luka-doncic-cade-cunningham-s-mvp-case-reducing-fouling-tendencies-and-more-exclusive\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Medina in an interview of Thompson for Essentially Sports<\/a>. Whether it\u2019s working out in the weight room post-game or watching film after shootaround, the defensive-minded wing keeps grinding. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys that does so much homework for each individual matchup,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cYou can tell it pays off for him.\u201d One of Thompson\u2019s main focuses is finding ways to stay aggressive without taking himself out of his own game. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a process. You still have to have an aggressive mindset. You got to know how to play basketball the right way and not force shots,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing aggressive doesn\u2019t always mean shooting the ball. Sometimes it means just touching the paint or getting shots for one of your teammates. When I think of aggressive, that\u2019s more of what I mean. It\u2019s about getting paint touches and making my man guard me. I\u2019m not necessarily thinking about the amount of shots I take.\u201d<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sassema01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-12-31_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marcus Sasser<\/a> missed much of the start of the season with a right hip impingement, but in Tuesday\u2019s win over the Lakers, he reminded the team why he\u2019s such a valuable piece for them, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/pistons\/2025\/12\/31\/marcus-sasser-pistons-lakers-game\/87969199007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sankofa writes<\/a>. Sasser ended the game with 19 points, five assists, and two steals. \u201cI would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention what Marcus Sasser did tonight, after not playing but somehow always seeming to find himself ready for the moment,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cBoth ends of the floor, I thought he was great defensively. Obviously hit some big shots for us offensively. What he did isn\u2019t easy. It\u2019s not easy to not play a ton and then come out and be as effective as he was.\u201d Sankofa notes that Sasser\u2019s three-point shooting ability could prove very helpful to the Pistons\u2019 bench, as the team is 21st in percentage and bottom-five in attempts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaden Ivey has played 18 straight games for the Pistons after missing the start of the season due&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[1026,7,296,188,3860,1018,3302,6,297,933],"class_list":{"0":"post-509035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-ausar-thompson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-jaden-ivey","14":"tag-marcus-sasser","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-pistons","17":"tag-tobias-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115817786059295409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}