While Jaden Ivey works to get his explosiveness back after a devastating injury, his most useful path for the Detroit Pistons is to become a volume 3-point shooter.
The biggest question hanging over the Pistons is whether they will trade Ivey before the February 5th trade deadline, a topic we’ve discussed ad nauseam, and there’s not much more to add to the conversation.
I’m running under the assumption that the Pistons are not trading Ivey (until they do) and in that case, they need to find ways for him to be more impactful in the 17 minutes a game he is currently playing, and the best way might be for him to start looking for and launching more 3-point shots.
Jaden Ivey is struggling to create off the bounce
Ivey is still trying to fully recover from a serious leg injury and anyone who has ever had one knows it takes time, not only to get the injury healed but to regain confidence in using that leg.
That hasn’t appeared to have happened yet for Ivey, who has struggled to get downhill and is running into trouble just about every time he puts the ball on the floor.
Ivey is not getting to the paint much, but he is doing one thing well, which is catch-and-shoot 3-point shots.
Jaden Ivey is hitting 40 percent of his long-range shots off the catch-and-shoot, which is something the Pistons need more of, as they are near the bottom of the league in 3-point makes per game.
Ivey has shown he can do it, as he was hitting over 41 percent of his 3-point shots last season before he got hurt and a whopping 45 percent on catch-and-shoot 3’s.
It would be nice to see the Pistons run more actions for him coming off screens, the kind they ran for Malik Beasley successfully last season. Ivey may not be able to create space and gravity with dribble penetration right now, but he can do it with his shooting.
Ivey isn’t going north to south as fast as he once did, but his lateral movement seems fine, so it would be smart for the Pistons to abandon the idea of him as a lead ball handler (and put him on the floor with a point guard already!) and use him mostly off the ball as a shooter. If he starts knocking down more shots, defenses will have to play him tighter, which will eventually help open up his dribble-drive game.
It’s going to take time for Ivey to completely recover from breaking his fibula, and it may not happen this season, but he can still contribute as a shooter and the Pistons need him to, as it’s an area where they are lacking.