Detroit Pistons see larger role for Stanley Johnson
The Detroit Pistons have moved on from Marcus Morris. Now it’s time to see what Stanley Johnson can do for the team, according to Stan Van Gundy.
The Detroit Pistons will look much more different next season than any of us could have anticipated. With Marcus Morris gone, the way has been paved for playing time for 2015 lottery pick Stanley Johnson.
"Stanley Johnson’s going to get every opportunity to stake out a major role – Van Gundy made that much clear. He hated losing Marcus Morris – “in this job, it’s the hardest one I’ve had by far,” Van Gundy said, calling Morris one of his all-time favorites – but needed to restore a little more frontcourt-backcourt balance.The Pistons needed guards, so that’s why Johnson spent the great majority of his time last season at shooting guard. But, truth is, he’s probably better suited to playing power forward than shooting guard, at least at the offensive end. Defensively, Van Gundy is comfortable playing Johnson at all three spots.“A key piece of this for us – not the biggest piece, but a key piece – is we need to get more out of Stanley,” Van Gundy said. “We were disappointed in his year last year, but in fairness I think we played him out of position a lot. We get a guy like Avery, we bring in Langston, we draft Luke (Kennard) – we really like our backcourt to go with Reggie and Ish and we move Stanley into a position to fight for minutes at the three and maybe even in smaller minutes at the four where I think he has a great chance to be successful.”"
Say what you want about how Stanley Johnson has disappointed you in his first two seasons, but I am a believer that he needs an opportunity to show case his ability in expanded minutes, as well as how he has improved in an offseason where he seems like he’s finally gotten the message.
I think Johnson will have a really good season, and I am really looking forward to watching him in an expanded role, potentially even starting.