Jaden Ivey was selected 5th overall by the Detroit Pistons in the 2022 NBA Draft and he has gotten off to a fine start in the league. The youngster is averaging 17.7 points per game on 50% shooting from the field and 45.5% from beyond the arc, but there is more to his game than just scoring.
Ivey is also averaging 6 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game as the Pistons seem to have found a fine foundational piece to pair with Cade Cunningham, last year’s no. 1 pick. The two, along with raw big man Jalen Duren, who has also shown flashes of what he is capable of, will be looking to lift the Pistons into some relevance.
Jaden Ivery Gets Schooled By Isaiah Stewart
While Ivey continues to impress on the court, there is still a lot for him to learn about playing in the NBA. In their opener against the Magic, he went to pick up Paolo Banchero, who had fallen down, and when he tried to pick up Jalen Brunson in their next game against the Knicks after fouling him, teammate Isaiah Stewart pulled him back.
Jaden Ivey gets a rookie lesson from Isaiah Stewart 😅 pic.twitter.com/uv9qdzIjuW
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 22, 2022
That is just some good sportsmanship from Ivey right there, but we normally don’t see that in the NBA, as it’s usually just teammates pulling up a player who goes down. Stewart clearly wants Ivey to stop doing it and perhaps the Pistons want to return to being the Bad Boys once again.
It really doesn’t matter in the end if Ivey continues to do this, however, as the most important thing is that he keeps playing well. He recorded the first double-double of his career on Saturday night as he finished with 17 points to go with 11 rebounds against the Pacers and he’ll very much be in the mix for Rookie of the Year if this start is anything to go by.
While the Ivey pick seems like a home run, the Pistons find themselves in a bit of trouble off the court. They had to launch an internal investigation recently into assistant GM Rob Murphy, who was accused of workplace misconduct by a former female employee. Not a lot about the situation has been put out, but if he did do what he has been accused of, then we hope that the Pistons cut ties. The NBA has already had to deal with one massive scandal regarding workplace harassment with Robert Sarver to go with the whole Ime Udoka situation and they’ll probably be keeping an eye on this situation as well, as they don’t want to make the headlines for the wrong reasons again.
