Detroit Pistons shooting guard Jaden Ivey was in the midst of a breakthrough when his 2024-25 campaign came to a sudden end. He endured the agony of a season-ending injury when he suffered a broken left fibula and was inevitably forced to undergo surgery to repair it.
Unfortunately, Ivey [will have to wait even longer](https://pistonpowered.com/jb-bickerstaff-drops-jaden-ivey-injury-update-detroit-pistons) to return to regular season action after knee discomfort require him to brave another procedure.
Ivey ended the 2024-25 season with averages of 17.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.1 three-point field goals made on .460/.409/.733 shooting. It was a clear step forward from a player who appeared to be coming into his own as a legitimate co-star alongside Cade Cunningham.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Ivey won't yet be able to build upon that success after undergoing an arthroscopic knee procedure that will force him to miss at least the next four weeks.
> Pistons guard Jaden Ivey underwent an arthroscopic procedure to relieve right knee discomfort and will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
>
> — Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) [October 16, 2025](https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1978914389211124166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Ivey will thus miss the first three weeks of the 2025-26 regular season, if not longer—and that may only scratch the surface of the problem at hand.
Pistons' Jaden Ivey set to miss at least four weeks after knee procedure
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Based on the timeline that Charania provided, Ivey will miss at least the first 12 games of the 2025-26 regular season. That puts his earliest return date as Friday, Nov. 14 against the Philadelphia 76ers or Monday, Nov. 17 against the Indiana Pacers depending on how exact the four-week projection is.
Ivey won't re-evaluated for game action until that four-week period passes, however, meaning it could be even longer before he's able to make his 2025-26 debut.
Even if he is able to return by Nov. 14, there's likely to be a learning curve as he recovers from two separate injury-related absences. He's appeared in just one of the Pistons' three preseason games up to this point, playing just 14 minutes during a 128-112 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
That's the only NBA action he's experienced since sustaining the aforementioned season-ending injury on Jan. 1.
With more than 10 months between regular season games played, rust is to be expected. Ivey will need time and repetitions to get back to the level he's capable of sustaining, let alone build upon the success he experienced prior to his injury in 2024-25.
That would typically be an accepted fact that the Pistons can simply move forward acknowledging, but the elephant in the room can't be ignored: Ivey will be a free agent in less than nine months.