Aron Baynes is feeling better than expected following his ankle sprain against the Miami Heat and may play against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday after all.
Aron Baynes suffered a painful looking ankle sprain on Sunday in the Detroit Pistons‘ win over the Miami Heat and was expected to miss some time. The Pistons bench is already a question mark as the lineup has been shuffled around following Reggie Jackson‘s return to the active roster, so the loss of Baynes for any extended time would have been a real problem.
However, according to Stan Van Gundy, it looks like he’s feeling well enough that he might be able to go against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night.
Aron Baynes is not definitely out tonight, per SVG. Listed as questionable.
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) January 3, 2017
Considering the size of the Pacers front line, it’ll be important for the Pistons to be able to utilize their bigs as well as possible. According to Van Gundy, if Baynes doesn’t go, they’ll utilize Jon Leuer against the Pacers’ talented young Myles Turner, and Boban Marjanovic will be matched up with Al Jefferson when he’s on the floor.
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Baynes has outperformed expectations this season, being one of the most consistent bench players for the Pistons. He’s averaging just 4.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, but he’s defended the rim effectively and has the best net rating of any rotational player at +4.4 points per 100 possessions.