How is Detroit Pistons' Jaden Ivey role expanding? He's gaining Monty Williams' trust

For once, Jaden Ivey was allowed to be himself.

The second-year guard has seen his role fluctuate this season. He has come off of the bench. He has started. He has played fewer than 20 minutes in five games, and more than 30 in three.

The Detroit Pistons’ new coaching staff has been reluctant to let him fill the role he thrived in as a rookie last season.

But on Monday, Monty Williams put the ball in Ivey’s hands. He played a season-high 34 minutes in a 131-123 home loss to the Indiana Pacers, the Pistons’ 20th-straight. And it resulted in one of his most trademark games of the season.

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Despite coming off of the bench, Ivey spent significant time playing alongside the starters. And his ability to go downhill and keep the defense off balance toes kept Detroit’s offense afloat while its top-two scorers, Cade Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanovic, sat on the bench.

It was another disappointing result for the Pistons, who fell to 2-21 overall and are in the midst of a franchise-worst skid. But Ivey’s role has steadily increased in recent weeks, and his ability to score and facilitate could be a swing factor for ending this losing streak.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, that (Williams) can trust me when I’m out there knowing when I’m out there to just play with a free mind, put faith in my teammates and make the simple plays,” Ivey, who finished with 18 points, said after the game. “I think that’s the most important thing. I played with a free spirit tonight, free mind and used my speed and my abilities to get to the rim. But I made plays for others and I feel like I can continue to do that and make plays for my teammates.

“That’s the one thing that I really do best, is use my speed. Using it to where my teammates can get their shots and stuff. I gotta keep doing that.”

Many expected Ivey to be a focal point for the Pistons after a strong rookie season, during which he averaged 16.3 points and 5.2 assists. But he came off of the bench during all four of Detroit’s preseason games, and in nine of their first 13 regular-season games (he missed four games with an illness).

It wasn’t until Killian Hayes missed his first game on Nov. 19 against the Toronto Raptors that Ivey got his first start of the season. Williams prioritized defense early in the season, and Hayes’ versatility on that end, along with his passing, made him the preferred guard in the rotation. Ivey, at times, got a quick hook when he made defensive errors. He didn’t play more than 23 minutes in a game until his ninth appearance of the season.

But regardless of Williams’ rotation, the Pistons haven’t been able to win. They started the season 2-1 overall, and haven’t won a game since. That, along with the team’s ongoing issues, have forced Williams to try new lineups and lean on different players in search of a spark.

Last week, Williams acknowledged that Ivey’s ability to push the pace could be an asset for the Pistons to lean on. We saw that come into fruition on Monday. He checked in midway through the first quarter in Williams’ first round of substitutions, and closed the first half alongside four of Detroit’s starters — Cade Cunningham, Bojan Bogdanovic, Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart.

Williams made a point to leave at least one of Bogdanovic or Cunningham on the floor in the first half. But the third quarter ended with both players on the bench. Williams allowed Ivey to run the show from the 2:38 mark of the third until a few minutes into the fourth, and Detroit’s offense, which has had a tendency to stagnate when the bench checks in, stayed afloat until Bogdanovic checked back in with 9:31 to play in the fourth and the team facing a six-point deficit, 107-101.

Ivey scored 14 of his 18 points in the paint. Indiana struggled to contain him, and his rim pressure opened up shots for his teammates.

“We’re trying to change up the rotations a bit to get certain combinations on the floor where (Ivey) can have live ball situations, get the ball in a flow and attack,” Williams said during his postgame news conference on Monday. “The best offense for us with him is a jailbreak where we give it to him and hit ahead. I don’t think there’s anybody in the league who can catch that kid when he’s got a head of steam. That part is a work-in-progress. Since we have (Bogdanovic) back, we can come up with some semblance of a rotation. Without (Jalen Duren) it’s a little bit different, but we’re trying to figure out combinations that allow for us to be more efficient."

Ivey proceeded to play the entire fourth quarter, once again finishing the period alongside four starters. But the team as a whole lost steam in the final few minutes, as Indiana pulled away with a 15-8 run that ended with a dagger 3-pointer by Tyrese Haliburton.

Ivey acknowledged after the game that it’s been a challenge to see his role shift this season. He’s spent significant time off-ball alongside Killian Hayes and Cunningham, and early on, he was often on the bench during crunch time.

He’s gaining more trust from the coaching staff, and looking more like himself.

“Obviously, it’s challenging,” Ivey said. “You’re trying to find yourself, when you play a certain role for a whole year and then are flipped into a different role. It’s like you’re trying to figure out how you can feel good and do your best in that role. It’s hard. The NBA’s hard. You’re playing different roles. I guess any guy can attest to that, playing different roles is hard when you’re trying to find yourself. Obviously it’s been hard and challenging, but my faith, it’s unwavering. My faith in my game. I always believe highly of myself and I’m going to continue to stick with it.

“We dug ourselves a hole, a deep hole,” he continued. "We’re in this now, this is what it is. This is what we’re playing like, and we gotta figure ourselves out and figure out how to get out this hole. That’s the most important thing right now.”

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Pistons' Jaden Ivey is finally seeing his role expand