Pistons’ shortage at point is Dinwiddie’s opportunity
Auburn Hills — While the Pistons have their share of injury issues at point guard, they’ll look to move forward in the exhibition season by moving some pieces around to try to compensate.
Their only healthy point guard is Spencer Dinwiddie, who in his second season, can have a chance to make a case for more minutes as the exhibition season continues and the regular season approaches.
Coach Stan Van Gundy said at Tuesday morning’s shootaround that Dinwiddie will start the exhibition opener and see the bulk of the minutes, with several other playing spot minutes to give Dinwiddie a break.
“We will simply play without a point guard for those minutes,” Van Gundy joked. “If it were midseason and we had to win the game, I would be tempted to leave Spencer out there for 48 minutes and let him go. He is in condition enough to do it but we are not going to push someone like that in a preseason game.
“Thirty-six (minutes) would be the upper limit and you’d hope you could get a little below that, but we’ll see what happens.”
After sitting out because of Achilles soreness, Reggie Jackson had MRI tests on Monday but they didn’t show any damage. Steve Blake (concussion) won’t practice until he clears the league’s concussion protocol.
That leaves Dinwiddie, who had an up-and-down rookie season last year, to shoulder the majority of the minutes in the short term and show that he deserves more playing time when the regular season starts.
“What I want to show is I can lead a team to a win, pretty much the only thing that matters in my position is getting a win,” Dinwiddie said. “We are going to play this like a regular game and play hard.
“I think I have played well in training camp, shot the ball well and played defense and showed the coach enough to have confidence to play me a lot.”
Van Gundy said Monday that playing shorthanded isn’t a big deal long term, but it’s preventing him from installing some of the offensive components and establishing the chemistry with so many new pieces on the roster this season.
That also applies to rookies Stanley Johnson and Darrun Hilliard, who could slide in to play some point in the interim.
“You’re playing out of position; you’re playing rookies who are just trying to learn the league and you’re giving them a new position to play,” Van Gundy said. “It sets you back but it’s still early in camp. It sets us back in terms of what we can do and put in (the opener).”
Dinwiddie missed training camp last season because of injury himself, but as the last man standing among the point guards, he’ll be counted on to contribute significantly until the others get healthy.
Jennings still on mend
Brandon Jennings, who suffered an Achilles injury in January, is working his way back to playing shape, but is taking things slowly. In training camp, he’s been doing some light shooting work but hasn’t begun full physical drills yet.
His return would give the Pistons another backcourt weapon, but that might have to wait until late November or into December.
“He’s doing a lot of shooting; he can do a lot of that and he’s getting himself ready,” Van Gundy said. “We’re hoping the next week or the week after, he will be able to do some drill work but we are not at that point yet.”
rod.beard@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/detnewsRodBeard