Detroit Pistons: Stanley Johnson Could Explode Next Season

Expectations were high for Stanley Johnson heading into his rookie season with the Detroit Pistons. Despite playing in a sixth-man role, expectations should remain the same for 2016-17.

In basketball, a player’s confidence is the most important recipe when formulating how great a player can actually be. With some players, a bad game can shake their confidence and let it linger in the future, negatively effecting their production for the next few games.

Those who have extreme confidence in themselves know that if they have a sub-par performance, they’ll be sure to dominate the next chance they get. In the NBA, you don’t find too many players that have fragile confidence because hey, they’re one of the best 450 players in the world.

But there are players that have the utmost confidence in themselves to become great and never back down from anyone or anything. Detroit Pistons small forward Stanley Johnson fits that mold.

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Coming into his rookie campaign last season, the 18-year-old was a candidate on many people’s radar for the Rookie of the Year Award. As many know, more times than not, summer predictions are more of a shot in the dark, especially when it comes to rookies.

Will they adjust to the speed of the NBA? Can they digest the complexity of the offensive and defensive schemes? Are they going to be distracted with life off the court so much that they lose focus during the course of a long 82-game schedule?

These are all questions that can’t be answered prior to opening night. For Johnson though, he had all the physical tools to fit right in with the NBA game, even at his young age.

The 6’7″, 245-pound wing overwhelmed his matchups when he starred at the University of Arizona his freshman year. That size is normal for what we see at the small forward position in the NBA today, so Johnson was ahead of the game in that facet. His skills were up to par as well. He could attack the rim and finish over defenders, shoot decently from outside, and was a pest defensively.

When the Pistons drafted him with the eighth pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, Johnson was assumed to start right away, but on July 9, the Pistons made a trade for Phoenix Suns forward Marcus Morris.

Morris ended up earning Stan Van Gundy’s trust and was awarded with the starting position. He would go on to have the best year of his career, averaging 14.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game through 80 starts.

This left Johnson playing the sixth man role, which in most rookie’s minds, would satisfy them. But again, Johnson has supreme confidence in himself and even though he played 23.1 minutes per game, he is the type to believe he should be playing starter’s minutes (30-35 MPG).

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Johnson’s 8.1 points per game average ranked ninth amongst rookies last season, but as competitive as he is, it had to have eaten him up to know that he could’ve easily been in the top five in that category with more playing time.

As the 2016-17 season looms closer, Morris will once again be the favorite to start at small forward. It’s hard to say that Johnson will beat him out for the starting position considering the big year that Morris had, but Johnson isn’t going to let last year dictate what will happen next season. He still has potential to be one of the best players in last year’s draft class when it’s all said and done, even if that means he stars in his sixth man role this season.

Most rookies with similar confidence as Johnson would start causing problems in the locker room because they believe they should be getting more time, or start letting the disease of me get the best of them. Johnson isn’t like other players his age.

This summer, Johnson had been working out with the USA Select Team this summer to help continue to take his game to the next level. He’s been focusing much of his time on the mechanics of his jump shot. Last season, Johnson shot 37.5 percent from the field and showed decent improvement in Summer League play, but he isn’t where he wants to be.

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"“I haven’t played the next season yet, so I don’t know if there’s been improvement,” Johnson told the Arizona Daily Star. “But I’m working really hard this summer. I think I should be better.”"

Odds are the 2016-17 season could be the one where Stanley Johnson explodes onto the scene.