Detroit Pistons Player Profile: Stanley Johnson

In 2015’s NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons used their eighth overall lottery pick to select Stanley Johnson out of Arizona. As Johnson performed well as a rookie, he could play a much more significant role for Detroit this upcoming season.

Stanley Johnson is a 6’7″, 245 lbs ‘Stanimal.’ He is a dynamic player capable of filling small forward, shooting guard, and point guard roles for NBA teams (admittedly point guard is a big stretch). Coming out of the University of Arizona, Johnson’s style of play is energetic. He comes at opponents at 150 mph, bodies them up and takes them to the hole.

Stanley Johnson’s greatest strength, as Stan Van Gundy stated, is his mentality. Though, this mentality is also a weakness.

“The strength Stanley has is he’s got a tremendous passion for the game and tremendous desire to be great. He’s as good a competitor as you’ll find in this league… What goes along with that is a stubbornness, to some degree.”

Additional weakness include his shooting, finishing at the basket, and dribbling capabilities. And going into this past summer, Stan Van Gundy understood these weaknesses; sending Johnson to the Orlando Summer League to fine-tune them. Fortunately for the Detroit Pistons, Johnson did exactly that and more.

After the summer league, Stanley Johnson kept busy with basketball. He traveled home to California and competed in the Drew League, then went along to Toronto and competed in OVO Bounce alongside Brandon Jennings.

Johnson ended up becoming a Drew League Champion, an OVO Bounce Champion (hitting the game winner in front of Drake), and being highly discussed on social media.

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For those who have kept an eye out for Johnson this summer, it’s apparent the Stanimal has improved. The most obvious improvements, due to an altered shooting form, has been his jump shot, his three ball, and finishing at the basket (most notably left-handed). Without the mentality Johnson possesses, such improvements would never have been possible.

Thankfully, that’s not the case as Johnson is what he is and does posses a competitive mentality. Such attitude will allow him to always overcome minor weaknesses and to always further improve.

On to his second year, it should be fun to watch Johnson’s improved game and his contribution to the Pistons. And fortunately for Detroit, the young man is newly 20 years old: a young gem that will continually improve to be the best.