RealGM

AUBURN HILLS – Reggie Jackson spent a ton of time this summer getting to know Dwane Casey, talking basketball and life. He mingled with the handful of teammates who also make Southern California their off-season home base. He watched individual workouts conducted by Casey’s assistant coaches as they drilled the things Casey wants to bring to the Pistons offense.

One thing he didn’t do: spend time on the basketball court.

The ankle injury that cost him 37 games and nearly three months last season hovered over his summer, as well.

“Probably didn’t heal the way everybody thought it might once we had time off,” Jackson said. “Just haven’t been able to get on the court, but been doing everything I can to get healthy.”

The good news is that Jackson says his right ankle – in which he tore ligaments in a Grade 3 sprain, the most severe – now feels back to form. He said there was no surgery but he had a “minor procedure, similar to what I did with my knee before.” Jackson was diagnosed with left knee tendinosis a week into training camp 2016, had a platelet-rich plasma injection and missed the first 20 games.

“It actually feels good. I feel like I can cut again,” he said. “Once I get going fully, just see how it feels. But it feels night and day compared to last year. … I think anybody who watched, I never looked right. I never ran right. But that’s what you do. Everybody has nicks and bruises in this game. I wouldn’t change it any other way. I would still come back and play. It was just unfortunate that it wasn’t healed.”

The bulk of the roster has been taking part in voluntary workouts for the past few weeks ahead of next week’s opening of training camp. Jackson’s been a limited participant, he said, and isn’t certain what, if any, restrictions will be placed on him during camp.

“I’m going day to day,” he said. “I don’t necessarily know. I’m going to come in and do what they tell me, what they allow me to do. I think the organization, our coaching staff and the training staff have a great game plan on when I’ll be back and how to implement myself back into the workouts.”

Jackson doesn’t anticipate feeling at a disadvantage because of the limitations he faced over the summer. If the ankle continues to respond well as he works his way back to full clearance, he’s confident he’ll hit his stride with relative speed.

Snakebites wrote:Shrug.

I'm long past the point of viewing Reggie as a reliable starting player for us. I'm surprised there were still people expecting him to be full steam ahead.

Billl wrote:Well, we drafted a pg too. And we still have money sunk in galloway as a "combo" guard. There is no use trying to spend money on a 4th/5th string pg just in case your starter goes down. If RJ misses significant time again, we need to be looking to blow it all up, not patch that hole.

Kilo wrote:Instead of looking to swap one of Ish/Galloway for a big, maybe the bigger pressing need is combining both and swapping them for a starting PG to a team looking to shave $6M of next years cap number (Ish's expiring).

Who are the $13M point guards in situations like that?

joeposh wrote:

Snakebites wrote:Shrug.

I'm long past the point of viewing Reggie as a reliable starting player for us. I'm surprised there were still people expecting him to be full steam ahead.

I tend to fall on the optimistic side of the spectrum, but signing Reggie to a max deal was probably the biggest mistake of the SVG era and the thing that is really hampering this team at the moment. It was a questionable call even when he was in peak form, and it's absolutely atrocious now that he's constantly cycling through a new injury. To compound the sin, we didn't even try to draft an effective prospect who could push Ish for minutes and possibly take the reins in a few years.

The only positive is that we've only got 2 seasons max left to suffer through, and we might be able to use his hefty expiring next year in a trade.

Snakebites wrote:

joeposh wrote:

Snakebites wrote:Shrug.

I'm long past the point of viewing Reggie as a reliable starting player for us. I'm surprised there were still people expecting him to be full steam ahead.

I tend to fall on the optimistic side of the spectrum, but signing Reggie to a max deal was probably the biggest mistake of the SVG era and the thing that is really hampering this team at the moment. It was a questionable call even when he was in peak form, and it's absolutely atrocious now that he's constantly cycling through a new injury. To compound the sin, we didn't even try to draft an effective prospect who could push Ish for minutes and possibly take the reins in a few years.

The only positive is that we've only got 2 seasons max left to suffer through, and we might be able to use his hefty expiring next year in a trade.

Almost every SVG move his hampering the team. I maintain the greatest harm was done by the Griffin trade but it’s all bad.

sfballa13 wrote:

Snakebites wrote:

joeposh wrote:
I tend to fall on the optimistic side of the spectrum, but signing Reggie to a max deal was probably the biggest mistake of the SVG era and the thing that is really hampering this team at the moment. It was a questionable call even when he was in peak form, and it's absolutely atrocious now that he's constantly cycling through a new injury. To compound the sin, we didn't even try to draft an effective prospect who could push Ish for minutes and possibly take the reins in a few years.

The only positive is that we've only got 2 seasons max left to suffer through, and we might be able to use his hefty expiring next year in a trade.

Almost every SVG move his hampering the team. I maintain the greatest harm was done by the Griffin trade but it’s all bad.

Our entire roster is made up of various levels of poop

Reggie, Jon Leuer = injured poop

Luke + Bullock = fresh steaming poop

Stanley Johnson + Galloway = weird looking poop

Blake Griffin = expensive poop

Drummond = overrated poop

Billl wrote:Well, we drafted a pg too. And we still have money sunk in galloway as a "combo" guard. There is no use trying to spend money on a 4th/5th string pg just in case your starter goes down. If RJ misses significant time again, we need to be looking to blow it all up, not patch that hole.

pistonsbball wrote:Damn. Not surprised.

We should try and get Pat Beverley, all we need is a PG who can defend and make the 3.