Detroit Pistons Executive Gives High Praise to Key Guard

When Trajan Langdon took over in the Detroit Pistons front office, he inherited a young core filled with exciting young talent. Among the pool of lottery picks was Jaden Ivey, a former top-five pick looking to carve out a role for himself in the franchise's future.

Last season, Ivey found himself in a limited role playing behind Killian Hayes under Monty Williams. However, that quickly changed when J.B. Bickerstaff took over this season. He gave Ivey a prominent role alongside Cade Cunningham in the backcourt, resulting in him putting up the best numbers of his young career.

From the start of preseason, Ivey looked poised to take a big step forward in 2025. He carried this momentum through the first portion of the regular season before suffering a leg injury on New Year's Day. Ivey worked hard to return to action this year, but the Pistons opted to err on the side of caution. In the 30 games he did play in, the 23-year-old averaged 17.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG and 4.0 APG while shooting 40.9% from beyond the arc.

During his end-of-year press conference earlier this week, Langdon touched on Ivey as he continues to get back to 100% physically. He cited how hard of a worker he's been all year, and praised parts of his game he was impressed by upon arriving in Detroit.

"He’s one of our hardest workers," Langdon told reporters. "His ability to shoot the ball is better than I thought coming in. His ability to guard, I think, took a step from the previous two seasons to last year."