National Basketball Association

Is Detroit Pistons' Stanley Johnson in the dog house?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Is Detroit Pistons’ forward Stanley Johnson in the dreaded Stan Van Gundy dog house?

Detroit Pistons‘ second year forward Stanley Johnson played just 14 minutes in the 2016-17 opener on Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors–seven less minutes than he averaged as a rookie.

In those 14 minutes he scored two points on four shots, grabbed three rebounds, and added an assist–not exactly the breakout start some were expecting from Johnson this season.

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Johnson didn’t practice well during the preseason and his play during the games matched in disappointment.

On top of that, Van Gundy admitted that Johnson’s stubbornness made him difficult to coach at times.

Those factors, along with Johnson’s desire to be great which may have lead to him forcing the issue too much during games has left the second-year player vying for playing time as the team’s backup shooting guard.

After watching Johnson play in the playoffs last year, not many would have expected that this would be the situation we would be in at the beginning of the season, and yet, here we are.

Johnson’s struggles seem to be mostly mental. It seems like he’s constantly at battle with his role on the team considering the talent he feels he possesses.

It’s disappointing that Johnson has started the season sluggishly–particularly since Reggie Jackson is out and starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope didn’t have the best start to the season either.

With Johnson’s minutes and roll diminished in the first game of the season compared to his rookie season, is it safe to say that he’s in Van Gundy’s dog house?

I don’t think so, not yet anyway.

Van Gundy has been known to tighten up his rotations for long stretches in tight games. While the Pistons were down double digits for most of the opener, the team hovered around a deficit of six to 12 points for the majority of the night.

Game situation may have dictated Van Gundy’s rotation, but I don’t think that explains everything.

I think the other part of this is some tough love by Van Gundy. He may be sending a message to Johnson that he’s not untouchable and that he needs to just play within himself–that and of course, Johnson hasn’t played particularly well.

It’s premature to say that Johnson is in the dog house, but if patterns don’t change for the young forward, he may very well find himself there.

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