J.B. Bickerstaff: Going to be difficult to cut someone out of rotation
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks about the team’s three days with no games after practice Friday, Nov. 21, 2025 in Detroit.
Jaden Ivey’s season debut is finally here for the Detroit Pistons.
The fourth year guard was upgraded to “available” on the team’s 7:30 p.m. injury report ahead of its 8 p.m. road game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, Nov. 22. It will mark his first regular season game since he went down with a broken left leg on Jan. 1. His return was delayed by arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Oct. 16.
“All of his teammates are excited,” J.B. Bickerstaff said pregame of Ivey’s return. “He’s excited, obviously. The journey that he’s been on to get to this point, it’s been a struggle and it’s frustrating, it’s emotional, it’s all of those things. You watch the way that he approached the work and he put himself in position to come back even stronger than when he left.
“Obviously those things will take some time for him to just get comfortable, his load increase, minutes increase and all of those things. His teammates and him and us as coaches couldn’t be more excited for a guy who deserves it more.”
Tobias Harris also is listed as available after missing nine games with a right ankle sprain. Harris will resume his place in the starting lineup Saturday, and Ivey will come off of the bench. They both were assigned to the Motor City Cruise earlier this week to participate in five-on-five scrimmages and ramp up their conditioning.
Teams commonly assign players who have missed significant time to the G League as a final rehab step before re-joining the parent club.
Ivey was at the Pistons’ morning shootaround for the first on Nov. 14 at the team’s Midtown practice facility, before their NBA Cup group play game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Little Caesars Arena. He also went through pregame warmups at LCA on Nov. 14 and 16, leading up to their 127-112 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
Ivey played 14 minutes in the Pistons’ preseason opener Oct. 6 against the Memphis Grizzlies, but missed their remaining three preseason games with what coach J.B. Bickerstaff characterized as “discomfort” before undergoing knee surgery.
The Pistons are slowly returning to full health. Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson returned from three- and four-game absences, respectively, in a win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. Jalen Duren returned from a two-game absence Monday against the Pacers. Meanwhile, guard Marcus Sasser has yet to make his season debut while rehabbing a right hip impingement.
Through their injury woes, they’ve continued stacking wins. Tuesday was their 11th in a row, improving to an Eastern Conference-best 13-2.
The Pistons won’t be the only banged-up team playing at the Fiserv Forum on Saturday (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit). The Bucks will be without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is out for at least the next two weeks with a low-grade left groin strain.
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