After losing their fourth straight game at the hands of the New York Knicks, the Detroit Pistons are moving that much further away from a possible playoff berth this season. Point guard Reggie Jackson received the night off for Monday's outing and could receive the rest of the season off as well after falling out of favor with head coach Stan Van Gundy due to his poor play and constant signs of fatigue.
“We've been thinking about this, actually for a long time,” Van Gundy said after his team's 109-95 loss at Madison Square Garden, according to Aaron McMann of MLive. “He's probably been playing at 80 percent. When you get into this stretch of games in March, where we're playing at, the fatigue is just making it worse.”
Van Gundy has given offseason signing Ish Smith more run during the past few games, but the Pistons have still lost seven of their last eight games, putting them in 10th place in the East and 2.5 games behind the Miami Heat for the last playoff spot.
Jackson has come down from a fruitful season in 2015-16, as Detroit locked the eighth seed and gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a valiant fight despite being swept in four games.
“It wasn't really fair to him — we were running him out there, putting pressure on him and he's seeing things he should be able to do and he just can't do them,” Van Gundy said. “He's not feeling pain, but he just can't make the plays he wants to make. And we're trying to put him out there.”
Jackson was absent for the first quarter of the season, missing 21 games due to left knee tendinitis. The Pistons were able to keep the ship afloat, staying over the .500 mark, but chemistry issues came into play upon his return.
As one of the three highest-paid players on the roster, it's hard to justify trotting Jackson out on the floor when he's only scored in double figures in three out of the last seven games.
When asked if his starting point guard could be shut down for the remainder of the season, Van Gundy replied: “Well we don't know. We don't know.”
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