The Detroit Pistons suffered another blow to their depth. Rookie Stanley Johnson was diagnosed with a shoulder sprain suffered in the Pistons’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday. According to head coach Stan Van Gundy, the small forward will likely be out two weeks with the injury.
With the Pistons currently sitting at ninth place in the Eastern conference, there is no room for error if they wish to make the playoffs. The team acquired Tobias Harris at the trade deadline, and that should make their team better. However, in doing so, they traded away valuable depth in Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova. Additionally, a trade for Donatas Motiejunas and Marcus Thornton was voided due to injury concerns.
Now with Johnson (as well as power forward Anthony Tolliver and shooting guard Jodie Meeks) injured, the team is lacking quite a bit of depth. The Pistons have already had concerns with the state of their bench but with injuries hitting the team hard, those concerns become even larger.
The Pistons will have to get everything they can from the players they do have to hold off the Wizards while trying to leapfrog either the Hornets or Bulls in order to get a playoff berth. Luckily, Johnson’s injury will not keep him out too long, as the promising rookie can have a profound impact on the team’s chances.
