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Question #1, does anyone know when Reggie might be back? Last article I saw said he was hoping to be back to practice this week but that was two weeks ago.

Question #2, does anyone have concern that Jackson's return might not instantly make us better? I think Ish and Beno have both played decent, but more so I like that we've had some higher % shooters getting more shots in Harris, Morris, and Leuer and I am hoping that our solid forward play and efficiency doesn't drop once Reggie gets the ball in his hands.

I think Reggie will tear it up.

I think he's supposed to be back in the beginning of December. I am a bit concerned about putting him into the starting lineup cause right now the ball is moving good. Reggie started getting to ball dominant and let the offense get stagnant to often. He needs to get back to distributing the ball around a bit more when he comes back so we don't get stuck with too predictable of a offense. With that said he's a much better player then Ish and a go to scorer so I'm excited as hell to get him back but just want to see him keep the ball moving.

I could definitely see Andres numbers raise while everyone else fall a little.

Reggie has more than a little Harden in him, at a lower level. It's a concern. He's a 4th quarter assassin, though, and the team needs a dude with big enough nuts to carry the team when needed.

You know at first I was going to come in here and be snarky, but having thought about it, you do raise a legitimate concern. The ball movement has been excellent and losing that would be bad, but then again we do now have two legit backup point gaurds to go to if Stan feels that Reggie isn't doing his job. This ain't last year when we had dum-dum and a corpse.

Jackson was on the cusp of getting an all-star nod last year so he will absolutely make us a better team without question, but his game will have to be more passing heavy then taking over heavy. I think he'll get it. The team is a hell of a lot deeper this year, with a ton of options.

As for his return, I think it will be pushed back if the Pistons keep winning to be honest. If they somehow go 3-1 on this west coast trip he may not return until mid, or even late December to be cautious. IT really wouldn't surprise me.

Do people not remember how awesome our ball movement was in the playoffs last year? Or that our starting lineup was the most well-rounded scoring lineup in the league last year? Yeah... I'm pretty sure Jackson will be just fine and our team as a whole will be much more than fine.

tmorgan wrote:Reggie has more than a little Harden in him, at a lower level. It's a concern. He's a 4th quarter assassin, though, and the team needs a dude with big enough nuts to carry the team when needed.

If that's the case then I think Reggie should play half the quarters and play more during the 4th quarter. It would make more sense since that's when he turns up and Ish is pretty good!

Things to note, so far this year we're 17th in the NBA as a team in assists at 21.5 per game. We're 9th in fewest turnovers per game at 13.3. Last season, we were 27th in assists per game at 19.4 and we had slightly more turnovers per game at 13.5.

Obviously this is a very small sample size, but it will be interesting to see how these numbers change, if at all, once Reggie comes back.

The so called RJ effect, branching off from the "Ewing theory".

I'm going to guess we're going to be in a max of few game slump after RJ comes back. I don't see us storming the gates after re-inserting a former starter. The way we've been setting up Tobias (our best scorer IMO and most improved) and Mook for easy shots have been the best. At the cost of Dre of course, but it's not like Dre's an elite go to scorer anyways.

I want to see Tobias get the same amount of shots he's getting and possibly increasing them if he continues to have his string of games where he shoots over 50% even if RJ comes back. I just love the hard work Tobias exudes out there.

Sometimes being forced to sit out and really watch what is working for your team, and what isn't working, can really improve a player's ability to make players around him better. I hope Reggie is really using this time off to evaluate his teammates and has a game plan going in that helps this team improve on what has been working and fixes what hasn't been working. Getting both Harris and Morris the ball in positions they can be effective is going to be a huge part of that.

Reggie can break down a defense just as well as Ish and is just as good of a passer, if not a better one. The main difference we'll see is that Reggie can actually finish in the paint and can make defenses pay for sagging off of him.

I have absolutely zero worries about RJ coming back. Let's not forget how well we played last year after we acquired Harris as well as how much of an impact Leuer is already making.

We're only 14th in offensive effeciency guys, lol. We're not some juggernaut offensively right now. Jackson will only help, lol.

Curious how the minutes will be distributed. Both Beno & Ish have played well. It's a good problem to have though.

I don't think there should be a rush for Reggie to come back. Pistons are playing solid ball and as long as they are above .500, I would rather wait til he is 100%.

BadMofoPimp wrote:I don't think there should be a rush for Reggie to come back. Pistons are playing solid ball and as long as they are above .500, I would rather wait til he is 100%.

Yeah but our schedule has been easy so far. Lets see if we are still playing solid ball during the upcoming west coast trip.

There's a pretty good shot we come back from this trip 5-5.

If he starts basketball activity again this week, I wouldn't be surprised if his first game back is our next home game... Against the Thunder who we all know he still has some BEEF with after last season's celebrating when we beat them in Detroit.

I'm not seeing any days for practice coming up. I wonder if Reggie will go down to GR to play a D-league game to test his readiness/knock off some rust like Jennings did last year.