Monty Williams explains why Jaden Ivey is coming off Detroit Pistons bench
Monty Williams laid out his vision during training camp for building a better Detroit Pistons team.
He vowed to hold players accountable for their mistakes, and expressed his distaste for allowing young players to make them repeatedly. In his experience, allowing bad habits is the same as encouraging them.
And, perhaps most importantly, the defensive side of the floor would be prioritized. Williams has certain “absolutes” he holds his team to, one of them being proper defensive execution. It’s a philosophy he shares with general manager Troy Weaver — in an era where every team can shoot and score the ball, those that can defend tend to rise above the muck.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Williams has stuck to his beliefs. And it has led to some surprises for a fanbase eager to watch the young players.
Jaden Ivey, the team’s 2022 fifth overall pick who earned All-Rookie second-team honors, is seventh on the roster in minutes per game despite starting 73 of 74 games played last season. He has come off the bench in all six games this season, and hasn’t played much at the ends of games. Cade Cunningham leads the team in fourth-quarter minutes with 60.5 — Ivey has tallied 26.5.
At first glance, Ivey’s reduced role is befuddling considering his improvements as a scorer. His efficiency is way up from last season. But it makes more sense when considering the other side of the floor.
Of their four healthy ball-handlers, Ivey has been the worst defender. Killian Hayes has been consistently solid on that end since his rookie year, and Cunningham’s size allows him to impact plays that many guards can’t. Marcus Sasser, a standout defender in college, has been capable on that end as well.
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Ivey’s scoring will likely keep him in the rotation, but Williams’ stance has been made clear: Hayes, who is shooting 30.8% overall and 28.6% from 3, has started every game due to his defense and ball control. For Ivey to see his role increase, he’ll have to hold his own on defense.
“I’m pretty clear about objectives,” Williams said after practice Saturday, when asked if Ivey understands what’s required of him. “The way we want to play is a team style of basketball. I’m more inclined to talk to guys about defense and rebounding than I am about offense. When you defend and rebound, all that other stuff takes care of itself. As it relates to JI, he’s still a young player. And as I’ve said before, I’m not giving minutes out. Minutes are precious.”
“He’s not the only guy that’s seen his minutes and all that reduced because of mistakes on the floor,” Williams continued. “It’s happened with (Jalen Duren), it’s happened with Cade, it’s happened with everybody, because I think the standard that we have around here should be excellence. And you can’t have excellence if guys feel like they’re being gifted minutes. So it’s not just JI. Overall, we need guys to play to a certain level and hold them accountable to that every night.”
The Pistons' 125-116 road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday illustrates Williams’ point. CJ McCollum scored 17 of his 33 points in the second quarter, and Ivey, 21 years old, was his primary defender for many of them.
He got lost on a screen and then fouled McCollum, 32, at the rim to prevent the easy bucket. McCollum drained both free throws. One of the NBA’s savvier scorers, McCollum also used his handle and floater to free himself for midrange shots. His final bucket of the quarter, a wide-open 3-pointer, came after Ivey ran into a screen set by Larry Nance and fell to the ground. Then late in the third, Ivey bit on a midrange pump fake and sent McCollum to the line again.
But Ivey was also on the floor as the Pistons mounted a comeback in the third, and finished the quarter with two highlight plays. He split a trip at the line after blocking a 3-point attempt by Jordan Hawkins, and then finished a fastbreak dunk that cut the deficit to 11 entering the fourth after the Pistons trailed by 25 late in the second.
He finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, making four of his six shot attempts. On the season, he’s shooting 49.1% overall and 40.7% from 3. Williams said he understands players will make mistakes. But repeated mistakes, both in practice and during games, will be costly.
“We have a bigger sample size,” Williams said. “So if I see it in practice and we’re seeing the same things in the game, I have to look at, first, how I’m teaching and address that, but then if I feel like I’m teaching it in a way that’s helpful, then I gotta say, hey.
“And thankfully, I’ve been blessed to be around a lot of young players and watch him grow, and I know how tough it can be. I have that empathy, because I was a young player. I was getting cussed out and these guys are getting Monty’d out. It’s a little bit different. The emphasis is still the same, I need you to grow. And I know what’s on the other side of this growth, you don’t. Let us help you get there as best we can.”
The Pistons declined defensively in Week 2 after a strong start in Week 1. They had the NBA’s seventh-best defensive rating (102.7) through their first three games, winning twice. They went 0-3 last week with a defensive rating of 115.8 — 22nd in the NBA.
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The Pistons are making sacrifices on the offensive end with the lineups they are using, so to continue winning games, they'll need to be a better defensive squad.
Ivey isn’t singlehandedly responsible for that. But the season's opening week showed what the team is capable of on that end of the floor. To maintain that standard, Williams will continue to hold his players to it.
“It gives you confidence and excitement,” he said of the 2-1 start to the season. “At the same time, I’m not sitting here thinking because we played defense the way we did in Miami and Charlotte and Chicago, that it was going to be sustained through the first 20 games of the year. I’m not like I’m (Gregg Popovich) or (Mike Krzyzewski) or any of these older coaches, but I do have enough background to know that that’s hard to sustain with a new program.
"I expected some of these bumps. At the same time, they’ve shown us what they can do, and you’re like, we have the clips to say this is what it looks like. When we do this, this can be a result."
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.
Next up: Suns
Matchup: Pistons (2-4) vs. Suns (2-4).
Tipoff: 3 p.m. Sunday; Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Jaden Ivey is coming off Detroit Pistons bench so far this season
