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Van Gundy: Stanley Johnson 'has to become a much better worker'

Brad Mills / USA TODAY Sports

Stanley Johnson's sophomore season hasn't exactly gone as planned.

After Detroit Pistons president/head coach Stan Van Gundy predicted a breakout, the 20-year-old swingman slumped mightily out of the gate, scoring just six total points over his first five games. A quarter of the way though the season, he's averaging just 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds, and playing about nine fewer minutes per game than he did in his rookie season. In the past two weeks, he's received two DNP-CDs, sandwiched around a one-game internal suspension for violating team rules.

Van Gundy says the issue has been Johnson's preparation between games.

"Stan has to become a much better worker and learner," Van Gundy told MLive's Aaron McMann before Friday's win over the Atlanta Hawks, in which Johnson went scoreless in under four minutes of action. "He just does. He's a great competitor - if you put him on the floor, he's going to work really, really hard. But he's got to get better at all the stuff that leads up to going onto the court. ...

"He's got to be a better practice guy. He's got to be a better workout guy. He's got to be better with all that stuff. Really working to get better. Once he's out there competing, you don't have a problem with that. He'll play as hard as anybody, but he's got to understand that's not the whole thing. It's preparing to play."

Johnson, for his part, doesn't quite know where he's at, or how exactly he landed so deep in the doghouse, but he's focused on getting himself out.

"I mean, honestly I don't even know how bad of a situation I'm actually in," Johnson said. "I'm not playing. That's the only thing that's bad. But at the end of the day, every day I'm getting better - I'm playing basketball, I work out every day.

"Not being able to play right now is obviously, I'm not happy with that. I will never be happy with that. But at the same time, you've got to find the silver lining in things and take (something) out of it. I need to get better at certain things to make coach happy."

Van Gundy knows Johnson's development is important to the Pistons' future, and he's challenging the youngster to figure out for himself what he needs to do.

"I'm not trying to send him this message, I'm just deciding to play other people ahead of him," Van Gundy said. "But that's what he's going to have to do. That's what this league requires. That's what this situation requires."

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