Detroit Pistons: Early concerns and anger from fanbase over Jaden Ivey

Jaden Ivey is not Deandre Ayton

Monty Williams was fired from the Phoenix Suns, partly because of their perceived failures in the playoffs. He also butted heads with some of his players, and some fans already think that is materializing with Ivey as it did with Deandre Ayton of the Suns.

Again, relax.

Forcing a player to earn minutes is how you change a losing culture, as accountability matters if you are actually trying to win games. The Pistons weren’t last season, so they let Ivey do whatever he wanted, which made sense.

It doesn’t anymore and Jaden Ivey would be the first to recognize that. Everyone who has ever played with or coached Ivey raves about his work ethic, his IQ and his desire to win, so I have no doubt he will figure this out and that he gets what Monty Williams is trying to do.

This isn’t an Ayton situation where you have an unhappy player openly sulking and arguing with his coach. By the way, the Suns couldn’t get rid of Ayton fast enough and shipped him out shortly after Williams, so I highly doubt he had anything to do with Monty getting fired.

Steel sharpens steel and I believe Ivey will come out of this as a better player. He’ll embrace the role and thrive in it eventually, but we need to give it more than one game.

So I get the concerns, but save the anger and “Monty should be fired!” stuff, as it is nonsensical, especially when Williams could be the coach to get the most out of Jaden Ivey.