Detroit Pistons: Early Impressions Of Stanley Johnson’s Jumper

One of the biggest questions surrounding Stanley Johnson entering the 2015 NBA Draft was his jump shot, or at least the consistency of it. While he shot a respectable 37.1 percent from distance in 2014-15, he ended up shooting 29.2 percent from distance in Pac-12 play. It’s a legitimate question as to how well that’s going to translate to the NBA.

However, the encouraging thing about those numbers is that they’re an improvement upon the numbers recorded from pre-college events (Nike EBYL, FIBA events, Adidas nations). Johnson’s work ethic and willingness to improve have consistently been raved about, a major reason that Stan Van Gundy opted to select him over others with the eighth overall pick a few weeks ago.

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Since Johnson was selected (to the chagrin of some), he’s done everything possible to get into the good graces of fans in Detroit, starting with his “Detroit vs. Everybody” declaration immediately upon being picked.

Make no mistake, things like that are extremely meaningful in Southeast Michigan, especially at a time where both the franchise and city are so downtrodden in the eyes of the many. The genuine excitement displayed by Stanley resonated with people in a big way.

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At the end of the day, though, you of course still have to get it done on the court, and Stanley Johnson has more than instilled early confidence in the fans that SVG made the right selection.

Johnson has played well enough to where NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper labeled him the best rookie of the Summer League, Vegas and Orlando included.

Again, one of the reasons fans were pessimistic was Johnson’s perimeter shot, as there was a question of whether or not he’d fit in Stan Van Gundy’s perimeter oriented offense.

So far, Stanley has done nothing except give both the fans and Detroit Pistons reason to feel optimistic about the potential of his jumpshot going forward, albeit in a small sample size. Johnson shot 4-for-9 of distance in the Orlando Summer League, good for a gaudy 44.4 percent.

If you watched, perhaps most notable was his confidence and willingness to shoot the jumper when it’s given to him and defenders are giving him room, something that is going to be needed from game to game during the season. Players routinely went under screens against Johnson in Orlando, and he made them pay.

That confidence only continued when Johnson headed to the Drew League, as the highlights show him pulling up and drilling a number of long range shots, many of them contested.

Andre Drummond was also on Stanley’s team at the Drew, and the highlights are encouraging if you’re a Pistons fan as the two display some nice chemistry, even if the competition is vastly inferior.

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Above are the highlights of Stanley Johnson’s jumpers from the Drew League, with dunks from him as well as Drummond mixed in. I’m sure you won’t mind.

He still clearly has a considerable amount of work to put in when it comes to his jumper. The makes from both the Summer and Drew leagues were almost exclusively from the right wing. Technically speaking, the biggest of criticism of the shot right now would probably be the low release, but it remains to be seen how much his form is altered.

Fortunately for Pistons fans, we’re not talking about Michael Kidd-Gilchrist coming out of college here.

Johnson probably won’t be a great perimeter shooter right away, and the numbers from distance might not be all that pretty the first couple seasons. However, the Pistons are now not exactly short on shooters, and there’ll be plenty of opportunities and time for Stanley to ease himself into becoming a legitimate NBA three-point threat.

If he’s able to do that, the Pistons may just have their second huge steal in the last four years on their hands.

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