The Detroit Pistons only recently got Jaden Ivey and Tobias Harris back from injury and now it’s Duncan Robinson’s turn to join the carousel.
Robinson is listed as questionable tonight against the Hawks with a sprained right ankle, making him about the 50th Pistons player to sprain an ankle this season. Can we get some tape in Detroit?
The Pistons did get some good news, as Marcus Sasser was assigned to the G-League, so he may end up returning ahead of schedule.
Both Caris LeVert and Jalen Duren have been upgraded to probable, so as usual, the Pistons will send a new name to the injury list just as someone else is coming off.
This particular injury is a tough one for the Pistons, who rely heavily on Robinson for his shooting, and it will also force them to go with yet another starting lineup.
Detroit Pistons injuries: Who will join the starting lineup?
JB Bickerstaff has a number of options to turn to for a Duncan Robinson replacement in the starting five, but this is a big loss.
The Pistons don’t have any other shooters that teams are scared of, an issue they may eventually have to address, though they are hoping that answer comes from their own roster.
We could see Jaden Ivey put back in his natural spot in the starting five. He’s been rusty so far, which you would expect, but he's coming off his best game of the season, so it’s possible coach Bickerstaff will just throw him back in there.
But Ivey is still on a minute's restriction, so starting him will mean going to the bench early, so coach Bickerstaff may just keep him in his current reserve role untiil he's ready.
In that case, we could see him turn to Daniss Jenkins again, a guy who played well in the four games he started this season. I’d rather keep Jenkins coming off the bench, so the second unit has a point guard, as the combination of Ivey and LeVert has led to a stagnant half-court offense.
In that case, we could see LeVert pushed into a starting role even though I wrote yesterday that he could eventually be the odd man out of the rotation once the Pistons are completely healthy.
LeVert hasn’t played particularly awful or anything, and if he were playing an off-ball role, you’d be happy with his shooting numbers, but he’s not been good at initiating the offense and his defense has been atrocious by any measure.
This could be that he’s still not fully healthy, so I don’t want to be too unfair to LeVert, who has been on and off the injury list himself.
JB Bickerstaff is once again in a tough spot as he tries to juggle a rotation that has been constantly disrupted by injuries.
We’ll see tonight if he’s ready to speed Ivey up or if he’ll turn to one of his other backups for the starting job.