JB Bickerstaff has ditched these 3 stubborn strategies

There was plenty to be confused and frustrated with from Monty Williams’ tenure with the Detroit Pistons last year. It seemed at times that Monty was actively going against the stream to prove a point. Whether he was or not, multiple Pistons are doing their best at making the Williams firing more than warranted this season, even if it has only been two weeks. Let’s take a look.

Isaiah Stewart - Stretch Four vs. Backup Center

Admittedly, Monty Williams wasn’t the only one who wanted to try the Isaiah Stewart power forward experiment. I, along with many others on Pistons Twitter saw the 6-foot-8 bruiser as the perfect stretch four based on his defense and energy paired with being undersized as a center.

So Stew set out to work on his perimeter shooting, and did his part. He worked on his three-point shooting and eventually became one of Detroit’s better perimeter options. But, his athleticism and ball handling proved to limit his skillset on the wing. Monty wasn’t going to accept that last season, however. He continually played Stewart at the four for the entire year, and let the backup center rotation of James Wiseman/Marvin Bagley demand minutes. 

After JB Bickerstaff had taken over the reins, the first thing he did was move Isaiah back to his natural position, albeit in a backup role to Jalen Duren. Isaiah couldn’t withhold his excitement to get back to what he loves about basketball, physical post play.

According to Bball lndex, Isaiah is currently third in rom protection, behind only Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren.

Stewart still has a lot to work on as the young season continues, but he seems to love the game much more in his natural position rather than Monty Williams’ stubborn idea of Stew at the four. 

Killian Hayes Over Jaden Ivey

Even just writing this still frustrates me. It should frustrate you, the reader, as well. For the entirety of last year, Monty Williams’ continuously forced Killian Hayes upon us. That in itself should be enough to drive one mad. But it was who he took minutes from that landed this stubborn decision on the list. Killian Hayes routinely was started over Jaden Ivey, so much so that there were legit concerns that Ivey had done something to wrong Monty, which kept him out of the starting lineup. 

Last season, Williams had Killian start 31 of his 42 games in Detroit. He averaged just 6.9 points, 4.9 assists, 2.8 rebounds and shot just 41% from the field (29% from three). Even just the eye test told you Killian Hayes was not an NBA player, but Monty refused to believe so. Hayes is now out of the league. 

As mentioned, Ivey was paying for some fictitious crime and was continuously pulled from the starting lineup. As soon as he would garner some momentum in his play, Williams’ would put him on a minutes restriction in favor of Killian.

Now, with JB at the helm, Jaden Ivey is absolutely thriving. He is seeing career highs in just about every statistical category, including averaging 19.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and shooting 47% from the field. Additionally, he is a red hot 41% from deep. It’s almost like, when given the chance to grow and get into a groove, Ivey has done just that. He’s now truly in contention for Most Improved Player of the Year, but no Pistons fan will forget what Monty did to him in the 2022-2023 season.

All Bench Lineups

The final stubborn coaching decision we’ve highlighted here is less of Monty Williams’ fault, but his continuous use of it after watching it fail over and over again, is. Time and time again, last year, we saw the starters get off to a decent start and either have a lead going into the second quarter, or at least be playing competitively. Like clockwork, however, Monty would go to his all bench second unit and Detroit’s deficit would balloon. 

Now, it wasn’t Williams’ fault that the second unit was terrible, that onus falls on Troy Weaver. We could (and may) do a whole different article on his stubborn decisions, but the roster build out was on him. It was Monty’s responsibility to figure out who to play when, however, to limit runs like we saw night after night after night. 

JB Bickerstaff began the year with an all bench unit, and they actually kept the game close and played well. Again, that somewhat falls on Trajan Langdon rather than JB, but what JB has done well since that first game is staggering our scorers.

He said over the offseason that his plan is to stagger Cade and Ivey, and I think he’s done even better than staggering them. So far, he has put together competitive lineups that rarely give up leads or runs that the starters have made. At least not at the level last year’s lineups did. 

It's still early, but JB Bickerstaff has been a big upgrade from Monty Williams just from going away from what wasn't working.