Detroit Pistons: A promising player comparison for Jaden Ivey

Jaden Ivey started his NBA career on a lousy Detroit Pistons’ team, so he’s largely flown under the radar this season.

But he really improved and came on as the season progressed and finished in the top-5 of nearly every important category for rookies even though he landed just 6th in the Rookie of the Year voting.

Voters seem to be rewarding the players on better teams, which will likely hurt Ivey considering he was on the worst team in the league. But he has as much potential as just about anyone in his draft class and definitely could end up as a future All-Star.

People have questioned his 3-point shooting, his defense and whether he is ultimately a scoring point guard or a playmaking shooting guard.

All of these same questions were asked about De’Aaron Fox, who made his first All-Star team this year and led his team to the third seed in the Western Conference.

There are a lot of similarities between the two players, especially when it comes to taking big shots.

Detroit Pistons: Jaden Ivey compares to De’Aaron Fox

Both Jaden Ivey and De’Aaron Fox are tweener guards who are around the same size, though Ivey is an inch taller and slightly heavier.

They are both lightning quick and entered the NBA with big question marks around their 3-point shot.

Ivey actually put up much better numbers as a rookie, but Fox’s game is very similar, as he likes to break down the defense and does a lot of his damage from in the paint, mid-range and at the free-throw line.

Ivey averaged 16.3 points. 5.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds as a rookie while shooting 41.6 percent from the floor and 34 percent from the 3-point line. He got to the line 4.8 times per game.

Fox averaged 11.6 points, 4.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game as a rookie while shooting a similar 41 percent from the field and 30 percent from the 3-point line. He got to the line just 2.7 times per game, so there are some areas where Ivey is already better than Fox was as a rookie.

But Fox made a huge leap in year two and then again in year three in which he averaged over 21 points per game to go along with 6.8 assists.

Both players need work defensively, but have similar games, but with Ivey being the better long-range shooter overall.

They are also both great in the clutch. Fox led the NBA in clutch points per game this season (five points per game), which netted him the Clutch Player of the Year award.

Ivey was also good in the clutch for the Pistons, as he averaged 2.1 clutch points per game, which was second among rookies. Fox averaged just 1.8 clutch points per game as a rookie in a similar number of attempts, so both players want the ball in their hands late in games and aren’t afraid to take the big shot.

It helps when you have the quickness to get wherever you want on the floor, which both guys do.

Ivey has a chance to be even better than Fox, but if he progressed in the same way and ended up as an All-Star by age 25 while leading his team to the top of the conference, fans of the Detroit Pistons would be very happy.