It appears as though the Stan Van Gundy honeymoon in Detroit is over. With the team struggling mightily out of the gate, players are starting to voice their frustrations. None have been as vocal as Brandon Jennings, who expressed his opinion to Detroit media members.
“If you ask the question about why we’re not making shots, we don’t shoot. We don’t shoot in practice.”
It seems as if Jennings is taking jabs at the way new coach Stan Van Gundy is running his team practices. However, Jennings is the last player you would expect to be talking about effective shooting. Jennings has always been known as a shoot-first point guard. His biggest problem is his inefficiency to shoot for a good percentage.
Jennings is a career 39.1 percent shooter from the field, a number which is highly unacceptable for a guard that has attempted 15.1 shots and 5.4 three-pointers for his career.
With Jennings comments resonating in his head, Van Gundy responded with the following.
“I’ve had good shooting teams, and we’ve always done things the same way. Look, I have no idea (about Jenning’s comments).”
Jennings wouldn’t be the first player Van Gundy has clashed with. The coach had many altercations with Dwight Howard while the two were together in Orlando. Van Gundy also had his issues with Heat president Pat Riley, a move which led to Van Gundy’s being fired from that team. Jennings is right on one thing, the team is not making shots. Detroit is 29th in the league in field-goal percentage with a lowly .410 percent of shots made.
It is highly unlikely that Van Gundy will be removed from his role as head coach and president, but if the talk among Detroit players continues some moves could be made. Moves which might include the trading of Jennings or big-man Greg Monroe. It’s obvious Detroit is in re-build mode, and while there will be hardship, you can expect that Van Gundy will do what he needs to remove any obstacles that stand in his path.
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