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http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/245176/Pistons-Considering-Replacing-Reggie-Jackson-With-Ish-Smith-In-Starting-Lineup

Stan Van Gundy is considering promoting Ish Smith into the starting lineup over Reggie Jackson.

Van Gundy said the Detroit Pistons need better effort out of their starting point guard.

"He says he's fine, our medical people say he's fine," Van Gundy said of Jackson. "The difference right now is an energy difference. That's what I talked about with Reggie today. I think for us to be successful with him on the floor, his defense and his energy have to improve."

Smith averaged 9.3 points and 5.7 assists per game in February, and has gradually watched his minutes creep up to nearly 23 minutes a night.



I think this is a wise move by Stan to make sure we play with high intensity in our remaining games. Our playoffs hope is still uncertain so we should give our all to make sure we get at least the 7th spot.

It's about time. If Jackson isn't injured, than he is just not physically and mentally fit yet. They need to start the game fast and I think Ish will help a ton.

Need to get Saric off the floor and then we should be able to beat them

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Hope it lights a fire and doesn't kill his trade value.

Ghost wrote:Hope it lights a fire and doesn't kill his trade value.

You have to have trade value to be able to kill it.

It's about damn time.

But that's crazy how the medical staff says he's healthy. If he truly is healthy and is only able to play like he has this year, that's pretty awful in terms of his trade value. I think that alone should kill any trade value he had.

At this rate, we're looking at attaching our pick to ship him out.

I would have Done it about 20 games ago, Don't know how many holes he needs to see the starters dig and watch the bench save them to make this move. Honestly the starters should be-

Ish/Reggie
KCP/SJ
SJ/Harris
Mook/Leuer/Harris
Drummond/Baynes

You can be healthy but totally out of shape or have a bad physical condition. Reggie had always problems and add that to hos injury maybe he needs more time to recover than other guys.


Or it's just SVG trying to not hurt his trade value and find him a successful role on the team while he's playing for us.

How many months too late is this "considering"?

I still like the idea of this lineup:

Smith / Jackson / Udrih
Caldwell-Pope / Bullock / Gbinije
Harris / Johnson / Hilliard
Morris / Leuer / Ellenson
Drummond / Baynes / Marjanovic

Keeps Ish and Tobias together which is important. Don't think Harris' resurgence was due to coming off the bench as much as it was just not playing with Jackson. Could go either way with Morris and Leuer, although keeping Marcus starting seems more likely. The improved defense at center on the second unit goes a long ways towards covering up Reggie's mistakes on that end.

Get back to me when this actually happens. Right now it just sounds like SVG is trying to send a message to RJ.

I actually love the 6 minute stints thing... Unless someone is out there really playing well in a groove offensively they should be going HAM for 6 minutes at a time and then rotating out. 24 minutes of max effort out of both of them can be insanely good for this team. Reggie has always had issues playing hard and gets winded but if he knows he's only playing 24 minutes and needs to play hard each minute that might be an ideal situation for us.