After the Pistons’ Saturday loss to the Indiana Pacers — a 105-90 defeat where they trailed by as many as 21 — forward Marcus Morris conducted a players-only meeting. Detroit had fallen below .500 and lost four of its last six games. Even worse, its starting point guard, who recently returned from injury, struggled to find his footing.
Reggie Jackson’s return was supposed to boost the Pistons. Instead, it’s derailing them
The Pistons are 3-6 since Jackson came back from a knee injury, and players are squabbling over touches and ball movement.
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Morris challenged his team to play for each other.
“I said at the end of the meeting that we have to make a decision,” he said, via the Detroit Free Press. “Everybody go home tonight and decide on what you want to do. Do you want to be a winning team or do you want to continue to get embarrassed? Are you going to play for the next man beside you or are you going to play for yourself?”
Detroit responded with an even worse performance against the struggling Bulls on Monday. The Pistons allowed Chicago to shoot 81 percent in the first quarter and lost by 31. Head coach Stan Van Gundy vowed to change the lineup before Wednesday’s home game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Team meeting my ass. Like I said before, that stuff means nothing; it’s what you do on the court. Talking is easy,” Van Gundy said. “I have nothing to say. It was a disgusting performance by all of us, me included. It was unprofessional, embarrassing, humiliating, whatever you want to say. It was terrible.
“It’s just a matter of who, now,” he continued. “I guarantee you on Wednesday night, we’re not trotting that five out again.”
Morris subtly called out Reggie Jackson
Jackson missed the first 21 games of the season with tendinitis in his left knee. Without him, the Pistons grew accustomed to Ish Smith, who is more of a distributor than a scorer. Detroit went 11-10 in that stretch.
Once the ball-dominant Jackson returned, the offense was stifled. Morris referenced the selfless way the league’s top teams move the ball, according to the Detroit Free Press. The Pistons are 3-6 since their starting point guard returned to the rotation.
“If you have a guy wide open, he has to get the ball. It builds guys’ confidence. It makes the game funner. That’s just how it is. Of course some dudes are going to get more shots than other dudes. That’s how the game goes,” he said. “Guys are not going to respond well when they don’t get the ball when they’re open. That’s just basketball. That’s just the right way. The Spurs, Golden State, Cleveland, the top tier teams play the right way. You never win if you don’t play the right way. That’s just the bottom line.”
Jackson’s name wasn’t mentioned, but he’s the point guard responsible for nurturing that sort of selflessness. Jackson responded, saying he just executes when his coach calls a play: “I don’t call the plays. Plays are called, we run them and I attack in pick-and-roll situations.”
Jackson may have taken Morris’ comments to heart.
Jackson was aggressive, in good ways and bad, in the games leading up to the team meeting. He shot 6 for 15 in the loss to Indiana, but finished with 19 points and 10 assists in one of his better games since his return.
But after Morris’ comments about moving the ball, Jackson went without a field goal attempt in the first quarter and spent much of the period retreating to the corner. Jackson finished just 2 of 5 from the field for seven points and three assists.
“That was him, not us,” Van Gundy said when asked about his point guard’s consistent relocating to the corner. On one possession, Jackson brought the ball up the court, gave it up, then stood in the corner with his hands on his hips.
Still, good things happen when Jackson is being aggressive.
In the end, Jackson is arguably Detroit’s best player, and opposing teams know that. Here, the defense collapsed — a show of respect for a player’s finishing ability — when Jackson attacked the paint in the second quarter. He didn’t get a shot up, but the ball was rotated to an open Tobias Harris. And despite a miss, it was one of few open looks the Pistons got against the Bulls.
This was even better.
But those plays didn’t happen much against the Bulls
And now Van Gundy has a problem. Jackson is by far the Pistons’ best shot creator and playmaker on the perimeter. They need him to play well if they’re going to have a chance at cracking the postseason.
But Detroit needs its point guard to score more efficiently and get others involved. He can’t force shots, but he also can’t neglect to shoot for an entire quarter.
Last year, Jackson was near All-Star status, averaging 18.8 points and 6.2 assists to propel the Pistons to the eighth seed in the East. This season, he’s been anything but. Detroit’s starting point guard is shooting just 38.7 percent from the field, the fifth-worst among those to play at least 25 minutes per game, since returning from injury. The Pistons have been outscored by 11 points per 100 possessions with Jackson on the floor, ninth-worst among the 74 guards to start at least nine games this season. With Smith playing, they allow an average 102.7 points, and in Beno Udrih’s minutes, the Pistons outscore opponents by 3.7.
The Pistons have some issues to work out, but their best shot at winning lies with Reggie Jackson at the point guard. And although Van Gundy is adamant about making a lineup change before Wednesday’s game against Memphis, it’s on Jackson to find the happy medium between facilitating and attacking aggressively.
And if he can do that, the Pistons will be much better off for it.
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