Josh Jackson still has an opportunity of becoming a crucial piece on the Phoenix Suns’ roster, but he needs to seriously improve in some areas for his New Year’s resolution.
With the 4th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns selected Josh Jackson from Kansas. He was brought in to be groomed into a lock down defender next to elite scorer Devin Booker.
Jackson was also supposed to bring some legit offensive potential.
However, despite his impressive athleticism and array of tools he has only been an okay defender at best.
On offense, he leaves much to be desired.
He’s only 21-years-old and still has plenty of time to figure it out and still take grasp of the role that he was expected to have here. To get there, though, he has A LOT of work to do.
He needs to hone in on his defense on the NBA level, while taking care of the ball and realizing his potential showing why he was such a high pick.
Phoenix Suns
Averaging 1 steal and 0.6 blocks per game is decent, especially in only 21.8 minutes per game off the bench. However his 111 defensive rating needs to climb a steep hill to be labeled as the type of defender we want him to be.
Speaking of taking care of the ball, he turns it over way too much.
He’s averaging 2.2 assists, which isn’t bad for a small forward but he’s got 2.3 turnovers per game. More turnovers than assists isn’t ever good and 3.8 turnovers per 36 minutes isn’t either.
Unless you’re a star that makes up for it in the rest of your game and Jackson isn’t. At least not yet.
He needs to take better care of the ball and make smarter plays.
This will help him develop as he’ll get more minutes of action and it will help the team as it gives the opponent less opportunities to score.
What I want to see the most from Josh is realizing his potential.
He needs to show us why he was the number four pick.
This season he has a 39-30-63 shooting line, is making 0.7 triples and averaging 8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1 steal and 0.6 blocks with 2.3 turnovers in 21.8 minutes per game.
That’s okay numbers for a late first round pick or a second round pick but it is far from what you want from a high lottery pick.
However, he showed last season that he might be a late starter.
In the 2017 portion of the 2017-18 season he had a 38-24-56 shooting split and was putting up a measly 9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1 steal and 0.3 blocks.
In the 2018 portion of the same season his shooting splits boosted to 44-28-69 and he played pretty well posting 17.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.6 blocks.
That may be in part from playing in garbage time but it was over 39 games so it also shows what he’s capable of.
This season, when he’s playing well the Suns are a better team.
Check out this interesting statistic.
Phoenix has won 9 games so far this season.
In those victories, he’s made 46% of his shots, 57% of his threes, made 1.3 treys per game and averaged 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game with 2 turnovers.
That’s quite a jump.
It will take time to see who he really is. However, at 21 years old, he still has a solid opportunity at a bright future. He just needs to reach out and grab it.
If he works on his shot, shows his defensive upside and plays like that number four pick he will bring back the fans that are starting to shy on him.