All injuries are unfortunate and ill-timed, which anyone who has ever had one will attest to, as there isn’t a good time in your life to be on crutches or in serious pain. But when it comes to NBA injuries and their ramifications on a player and his team, few are as poorly timed as Jaden Ivey’s was last season.
The Pistons still in evaluation mode
Because Jaden Ivey only played 30 games last season, the Pistons still don’t know about his long-term fit and whether his improved shooting efficiency was for real or just a short-term sample.
Ivey was red hot just before his injury, averaging nearly 20 points per game in his last five games and shooting over 60 percent, which obviously isn’t going to happen for a full season but shows what he’s capable of when he’s rolling.
But the Pistons just didn’t get to see enough of it, and the team ended up making the playoffs without him, which complicates things even further. We likely wouldn’t be in this spot if Ivey hadn’t gotten hurt.
Ivey may have already gotten his bag
If Jaden Ivey had played a full season and continued what he was doing, he may already have an extension in hand.
As it stands, it doesn’t appear as if the Pistons are going to make that commitment without seeing another full season from Ivey, in which case he’ll be a restricted free agent with little leverage.
That injury may have cost Ivey an early extension, so while no player wants to get injured, you particularly don’t want it to happen just before a big contract decision.
Jaden Ivey missed the playoff reps his young teammates got
Possibly the worst part of Ivey’s injury for both him personally and the team was that he wasn’t a part of the playoff run or series against the Knicks.
He missed out on valuable developmental time on the big stage of the playoffs, which had to be disappointing for him as he watched from the bench.
It was also detrimental to the Pistons, who were desperate for a second scoring option that Ivey may have been able to provide. Him being on the bench for the entirety of it was a big missed opportunity for Ivey’s development the Pistons’ chances of moving to the second round of the playoffs.
Ivey got set back a year, but he can make that experience a distant bad memory by playing well this season and being part of the Pistons’ next run to the playoffs.