AUBURN HILLS - Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy has a few more days to decide whether Reggie Jackson or Ish Smith will start at point guard for the season opener. He is preparing for both scenarios.

"They're both going to play with both units," Van Gundy said after Sunday's practice. "Even in practice today, we switched them from segment to segment so they're both playing with everybody. We haven't locked either one of them into one unit or the other."

Van Gundy said that while some players and fans get "really concerned" about who starts, the pair will play 48 minutes total.

"If it's 26 and 22 or 28 and 20, 24 and 24, I think the biggest split it might get to if one of them were having a great night would be 30 and 18," Van Gundy said.

Jackson, coming of a season plagued by tendinitis in his knee, was hampered by a groin injury early in camp and limited to three preseason games. He averaged 9.7 points, shooting 37.1 percent, and 3.7 assists in 24.5 minutes.

Smith provided energy off the bench, averaging 13.5 points, on 53.1 percent from the floor, and 7.4 assists in 26 minutes.

"I think more than any position for us, both of those guys have to play well," Van Gundy said. "If we got one of them playing well and not the other, that's a problem. We need them both playing at a good energy level and I don't think their minutes can be real high because we're really trying to put more pressure on them defensively in terms of what we want them to do. That effort and trying to push the ball a little more on offense will take a little bit more out of them."

That might be an issue early on for Jackson, though he said he feels great physically and doesn't expect timing to be a problem.

"The beginning of the season is kind of ugly for all teams," Jackson said. "You're going to have little mishaps, a few of them here and there. I'm going to try to keep my turnovers down, but I still got to be on the attack. Feel like my timing is good, but Wednesday will be the first test and keep trying to progress after that."

Van Gundy will try to have Jackson and Andre Drummond on the floor together as much as possible.

"I don't know exactly what we'll do early on, but I think we would certainly want them playing together, so whether that's at the start or whether you've got to get them back in together, we'll figure that out as we go," Van Gundy said. "Right now, I'm much more focused on our defense and playing hard. We came out of the preseason 26th defensively in points per possession, that's not going to cut it."

Jackson could have used a couple more preseason games for his timing with Drummond on the pick-and-roll.

"Everybody knows we run a heavy dosage of it," Jackson said. "Would have been great to get our timing, but we've been playing together for 21/2 years, so we won't be too rusty when we get into the game. We'll figure out how they're defending it. Still have great chemistry."

Jackson's floaters weren't falling in the preseason like they normally do.

"Personally, I think he's shooting them from too deep; he's got to get one more dribble into the lane, put pressure on the defense," Van Gundy said. "He's shooting that thing at the free-throw line; I don't think that is necessarily a great shot for him. When he gets it in another step, hits that lower defensive box, then it's a good shot for him."

Van Gundy said Jackson has no minutes restriction.

"The only thing restricting him is his conditioning," Van Gundy said. "His conditioning has gotten a lot better. He went almost nine minutes the first stretch (Friday in Milwaukee). We played very good defense at that time and he was part of that, putting in good effort, so it's getting better and better."

Whether Jackson is eased in slowly will depend on him.

"Right now, he's ready to go," Van Gundy said. "I think he feels different than he did at any point last year. I don't think at any point last year he felt as good or as much confidence in his legs as he does now."

Extended: The Pistons announced they have exercised their 2018-19 options on the contracts for Stanley Johnson ($3.94 million) and Henry Ellenson ($1.86 million).