Should the Detroit Pistons start Stanley Johnson over Ersan Ilyasova?

Stanley Johnson has been steadily improving over the last eight games. Should the Detroit Pistons start Stanley Johnson over Ersan Ilyasova?

Stanley Johnson has really turned it on in the Pistons’ last eight games. During this stretch, Johnson has averaged 13.9 points shooting 47% from the floor and 39.3% from three. He’s also averaged 2.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds–both above his season averages–in 28.5 minutes per game (he averages 23.3 minutes per game overall).

While Johnson’s only started two games this season–and both were due to injury–his play of late should at least make Stan Van Gundy entertain the idea. This is especially true when you factor in how streaky Ilyasova has been on offense this season, and how marginal he is on defense.

The other factor here is what this would do to the starting and second string units. If Johnson started over Ilyasova, Marcus Morris–one of the Pistons’ best wing defenders–would then be forced to play as an undersized powerforward down low.

The alternative is to have Johnson play as an undersized powerforward.

Johnson certainly has the strength to play against bigger players, but he’s unproven in that area.

As for the second unit, Van Gundy would be forced to play Ilyasova and Tolliver together with Ilyasova playing small forward. Both can be lethal if they are hitting their shots, but the flip side to that is if both are having an off night, they are pretty useless. The bench also loses a solid ball handler, facilitator, and score in Johnson–something that it can’t replace.

Johnson will be a starter for the Pistons at some point. If he continues to play the way he is playing now, it will be hard to keep him on the bench.

But right now, this team doesn’t have the talent off of the bench to be able to swap Johnson for Ilyasova.

Of course there is another option we haven’t explored, starting Johnson and bringing Marcus Morris off the bench.

The idea isn’t terrible–assuming these last eight games from Johnson aren’t an anomaly–but the Pistons’ starting lineup would be losing their second best wing defender by doing that, and this team has had a hard time stopping apposing offenses of late.

This move could prove to do more harm than good.

The Pistons haven’t been playing well recently, but I’m not sure that a lineup change will help get them out of their funk. That said, Johnson has undeniably been providing a much needed spark when he gets ample playing time.

If I were Stan Van Gundy, I would leave things the way they are until Johnson forces you to start him (i.e. with stellar play over a longer period of time).

Just because Johnson doesn’t start doesn’t mean that Van Gundy can’t find more ways to get him in. If Johnson keeps this up, it won’t be hard to find him 25-30 minutes a night.