Jaden Ivey is Seemingly Making the Leap, but is it Real?

Jaden Ivey's career with the Detroit Pistons has been rocky, but a few crucial changes appear to be putting him back on the right path.

Year after year, the NBA shows us the importance of context for draft prospects and how much it can influence a player’s transition to the league. Some players are simply too talented to not break through, but for others, it can be far too common to have their career and development completely derailed by poor context. Few players are illuminating that sentiment more than Jaden Ivey this season with the Detroit Pistons.

Through his first two seasons, Ivey was essentially a bad player. He wasn’t shooting well, he wasn’t empowered to play to his strengths, and his defense was passable at best. He was looking like a shell of the prospect from Purdue who captivated the college basketball world. While essentially any number you look at from his first two seasons is worrisome, those numbers don’t factor in context at all.

What those numbers ignore is that Ivey experienced two coaches in his first two seasons. One of those coaches never wanted to be there and routinely started Killian Hayes over Ivey. Additionally, the front office was dead set on acquiring every center off the scrap heap while completely ignoring the abysmal spacing of the team and how it was adversely affecting their young should-be-stars. In year three, Ivey is now playing for his third coach and second front office—both of whom are already helping Ivey emerge as the player we hoped he’d be coming out of college.

Through his first five games, Ivey is averaging 21.2 points, 3.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.2 steals with shooting splits of 47.5/42.9/75 and just 2.4 turnovers. It’s a long season, but those would all be career bests for Ivey, except for the assists. Now, the easy response to this sudden improvement is that Ivey is simply going through a hot streak. He might be, which would be a bummer, but this feels far more sustainable than a simple hot steak. That brings us back to his context and the process of how he’s achieving these numbers.