Detroit Pistons 2017-18 Season Review: Stanley Johnson
Stanley Johnson‘s season was a roller coaster from start to finish. Let’s take a look on how he did in the 2017-2018 season for the Pistons.
Going into the 2017 summer there was a lot of disappointment after Johnson’s sophomore NBA season after a solid rookie season. He failed to meet the expectations of his development in his overall game for the Pistons.
So during the 2017 summer Johnson knew that he had to try something new.
He moved to Santa Barbara to have a closer commute to P3 Training Facility, the sports and science training facility that tests a player to find improvement points.
Johnson was not happy with his sophomore season as he was unsatisfied with how things went. He wanted to improve all of his game during his time at P3 including shooting, ball handling, court vision and more. He started working in June during the summer and practiced with help for many hours.
Fast forward to July where Marcus Morris was traded to the Boston Celtics for shooting guard Avery Bradley. This opened up an opportunity as Stan Van Gundy put a lot of hope for Stanley Johnson’s progression as a player. He was named the small forward starter.
In August, Stanley Johnson competed in an OVO Bounce Championship game where he dropped an insane 86 points to win the game. This sparked social media as many NBA fans expected an improving season than the season prior.
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/893839757972787200
The first game of the season didn’t treat Stanley too kindly as he had a terrible performance shooting. He had 2 points and was 0-13 from the field in 40 minutes. But he had a great game defensively. He had 4 steals with some excellent lock down defense.
He would have better shooting performances in the following weeks until a back injury set him sidelined for three games. He would return but the injury hurt his shooting as he would shoot 32 percent from the field in his next 13 games. This forced Stan Van Gundy to bench him for Reggie Bullock.
His scoring and effort instantly became better off the bench. But he would continue to have a awful field goal percentage. In those games off the bench, he started to deal with another obstacle. A hip injury that would send him sideline for 8 games.
He would return midway through January and his shooting improved. His performances were getting better and better with a couple games off the bench and as a starter.
Then a major trade happened. The Pistons traded Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, and a first round draft pick to the LA Clippers for power forward Blake Griffin. This opened up another opportunity for Stanley because he would become the starter again.
During that trade, Stanley had arguably his best game of the season. He dropped 26 points and 10 rebounds while playing amazing defense and had 4 steals and 2 blocks against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Blake Griffin trade really boosted Stanley Johnson’s confidence. In the next 12 games as a starter; he would shoot 43 percent while averaging 12.1 points per game.
Stanley Johnson would finish off the rest of the season pretty rough as his averages would go down. But his offensive game would seemingly look better. He was taking better shots and played in his comfort zone instead of standing out at the 3 point line.
Next: Season Review: Reggie Bullock
He finished the season with averages of 8.7 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists, and a career high 1.4 steals per game while shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from three. He would also play a career high 27.4 minutes a game.
Although the numbers don’t look great, you could see specifically in the second half of the season his offensive game started to show. He was playing like Stanley Johnson in high school and college.