No matter how good he is offensively, Jaden Ivey needs to improve on defense if he wants to be a long-term part of the Detroit Pistons.
We’ve talked endlessly about Jaden Ivey’s fit with Cade Cunningham and offensively it is there, as Ivey has shown (albeit briefly) that he can thrive off the ball in catch-and-shoot situations and attacking as a secondary creator.
He still has some tweaks to make there as well, mostly when it comes to decision-making as a passer and developing as a scorer in the floater area.
Sam Vecenie and Bryce Simon addressed this issue on a recent episode of the Game Theory Podcast, with Vecenie stating that Ivey was not as far along defensively as he thought he might be, given his physicality and athleticism.
Simon said Ivey “has got to be neutral” on defense, meaning at least not the traffic cone he has been for most of his career so far.
There are concerns here, especially for a team that is clearly building their identity around defense, but the Pistons need to see a lot more before they can make what will ultimately be one of the most important roster decisions.
This is why the Pistons haven’t extended Jaden Ivey
The Pistons don’t have an answer to the question of whether Ivey is the right fit because they’ve not seen enough to judge.
As Simon pointed out, Ivey was set back by the disastrous Monty Williams debacle, when he was benched in favor of a guy who is no longer even in the NBA.
Ivey also missed most of last season, so he didn’t get the time to make the improvements we saw from the other young players, who were afforded a whole season.
Valid excuses aside, this is certainly a make-or-break season for Ivey, but he doesn’t have to suddenly morph into prime Gary Payton to be a valuable part of this roster. The Pistons have good defenders around him, so like Simon said, if Ivey can just be neutral, he’ll be fine.
Given that the Pistons haven’t offered Ivey an extension (at least not publicly), it’s clear they still need to see more from the young guard before committing to him. He either has to improve defensively or be so good offensively that it doesn’t matter.
Detroit still has until the beginning of next season to offer Ivey an extension, and it will be interesting to see if they are content being patient or want to play the risk/reward game by extending him early and possibly getting a discount.