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Detroit native and 13-year NBA veteran Jalen Rose is very much aware of the dull state of the Detroit Pistons over the past several years.
During a fundraising event at the Detroit Golf Club for the Jalen Rose Academy last Monday, Chris Nelsen of The Detroit Free Press reports that the former Michigan Wolverine guard touched on the subject of the Pistons’ struggles and opined that the players should start taking it seriously for the franchise to turn things around.
“At some point, and I'm speaking from a player's view, you have to ball.”
Often times, the coaching staff and the front office of a struggling team get most of the blame, but Rose isn’t one to subscribe to that idea with regards to the situation in Detroit. He even had nice words for Pistons head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy and team owner Tom Gores.
“Stan Van Gundy is a top-five coach. Tom Gores is committed to bringing talent in. Now, it's about the players developing. You can't look at the opponent, you can't look at the roster. It's up to the players to work and develop.”
This brought Rose keying on the Pistons’ supposed leaders in Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson, who failed to show the team the way back to the playoffs after making the postseason back in 2016. Detroit finished the 2016-17 campaign 10th in the Eastern Conference with a 37-45 record.
“The players you draft, like Andre Drummond, and the players you acquire and give contracts to, like Reggie Jackson, those players need to be at their peak performance,” said Rose, a Michigan Fab Five member, former NBA standout and current ESPN analyst. “I know Andre Drummond has potential. I know Reggie Jackson is a good player. Now, they just need to ball.”
The Pistons were four games short that season of making the postseason. A better effort from Drummond and Jackson and the addition of Avery Bradley to the team could spell success for Detroit this coming season.
