Jaden Ivey has lacked his trademark burst this season as he tries to come back from a serious leg injury and is evolving into a catch-and-shoot 3-point specialist, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. But if he’s not going to create, he can’t keep turning over the ball.
I wrote recently that the Pistons would be best served turning Ivey into more of a 3-point shooter, as he’s not getting downhill, but has been knocking down catch-and-shoot 3-point shots at a high rate, hitting over 40 percent of that type of shot on the season.
He’s made 38 percent of his long-range shots overall, so he is one of Detroit’s better 3-point shooters, a skill they desperately need. He hit 3-of-4 last night and all but two of his shots were from long range, so Ivey is embracing this new role as he tries to get back to 100 percent.
The problem is that he is still turning the ball over too much, which we also saw last night, which is something that can’t happen if the shot creation and penetration isn’t there to go with it.
Jaden Ivey has to stop dribbling
I’m at the point where I cringe every time Jaden Ivey puts the ball on the floor and for good reason, he’s averaging an almost even assist to turnover ratio this season with a career low 1.6 assists per game to go with 1.1 turnovers.
He added four turnovers last night with zero assists, and it wasn’t like Ivey was even doing anything with the ball. To his credit, he’s mostly just been firing 3-point shots and has hit nearly 48 percent of them over his last five games, but when Ivey puts the ball on the floor, it spells trouble for the Pistons.
Even though he’s not being asked to create at all, Ivey still has the bad habit of dribbling right into the teeth of the defense without a plan of what he’s going to do once he gets there, which often leads to high degree of difficulty passes, or Ivey just coughing it up.
The Pistons turn the ball over way too much as a team, but you can live with some of them, as they are plays of aggression, or in the case of Cade Cunningham, part of being a high usage player, one who offsets the turnovers with plenty of points and assists.
We’ve gotten to the point with Ivey that he is actually worse going to the basket than Duncan Robinson, a guy who has made a career out of catching the ball and shooting it. Ivey could learn plenty from Robinson, who either shoots immediately, gets rid of the ball, or attacks the rim with a plan on reckless close outs.
Robinson is averaging more assists than Ivey right now and just over half as many turnovers.
I’ve been at the front of the “be patient” crowd when it comes to Ivey and am fine with him evolving into more of a specialist, but you can’t be a role player and turn the ball over that much. It's that simple.