Jaden Ivey had quite the challenge in his first year with the Pistons. And he wound up having quite the season.
Forced to take over as the team's primary point guard and ball-handler after Cade Cunningham went down for the season in November, Ivey grew more than he and the Pistons may have even expected.
He evolved from a slashing scorer in the first half of the season into a more well-rounded shooter, distributor and defender in the second half. Just take it from Cunningham, who was watching the No. 5 pick closely from the Pistons' bench as the former No. 1 pick rehabbed his surgically-repaired shin.
"I think when he first came in, he just played the same way he always knew of playing, which every rookie does coming in," Cunningham said Monday. "You quickly get a feel for the length and the speed of the NBA. Obviously he’s the fastest guy out there, but I think him learning the pace of the game allowed him to figure out when to pick his spots, when to attack and when to push.
"The pace and the poise that he showed at the end of the year, obviously I knew he was going to have that, but I didn’t realize he was going to pick it up so fast. That was huge for the team to see and huge for him to feel that."
Ivey would agree with Cunningham. (And Cunningham was echoing Dwane Casey, who said from the beginning that Ivey's biggest challenge would be learning how to harness his speed in the NBA.) Ivey admitted Monday that at times this season, "I used my speed too much, and it ultimately led to a turnover or a mistake on the offensive end."
"Going through those mistakes, you realize how to change speeds. And when you make a mistake, it’s on film, so I really dug into the film part of it to see a move I could do better or a change of speeds I could improve on," Ivey said.
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Over his first 40 games, Ivey averaged 15.0 points and 4.1 assists, while shooting 33.3 percent from three. He averaged 17.8 points and 6.6 assists, while shooting 35.1 percent from three the rest of the way. Asked where he's proudest of his growth over the last year, Ivey pointed to his mid-range game. It was something he worked on frequently throughout his first NBA season.
"Being able to utilize that aspect of my game and knowing when to use it at the right times has really helped me and my teammates a lot. Instead of going to the paint and trying to force up a lay-up every time, I kind of learned to pick my spots, when and where, and I think that’s really helped me game a lot. I’m just going to continue to work on it, lean on my coaches and get better," Ivey said.
Ivey wound up shooting 41 percent from 10 to 16 feet, and 44 percent from 16 feet to the three-point line. He said he benefitted from watching lots of film of Cunningham's mid-range game, especially how to attack within the rhythm of play. The two of them are intent on doing damage as a duo next season.
"I’m ecstatic to be on the court with him again," Ivey said. "I talk about it all the time: it's not really the player I look forward to playing with, it’s the person I enjoy seeing every single day when I step in that locker room. It starts with his spirit, and he has that. He’s the key to getting every single person going in this locker room."
Cunningham echoed Ivey. He also said that Ivey's increased role this season, "having the ball more and having so much attention on him, is really going to pay off in the future when we’re on the court together." So will the strides Ivey made on defense.
He credits his growth on that side of the ball to "pride" and the tutelage of Pistons development coach John Beilien. After realizing he was getting beat frequently off the dribble and making "constant mistakes on defense that led to a lot of other teams’ wins," Ivey said he sought out Beilein in the middle of the season and resolved to improve.
"I was like, 'Let’s work on some defense. Let’s work on close-outs, on being the low man, let’s get more reps on the defensive end,'" Ivey said. "That’s when my mind shifted a little bit to where, I gotta be more focused on this aspect for us to be a better team. That’s when I think it flipped for me, and I feel like I’ve shown strides toward being a great two-way player."
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