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Season Review: Josh Jackson

What a difficult player to assess. Thanks, Alvin Gentry!
By | 14 Comments | Apr 16, 2022

Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

As we continue our Season Review series, we sometimes come across players about which there’s unfortunately little to say. Such is the case with Josh Jackson, but we’re going to try anyway.

Jackson was a throw-in as part of the trade that sent Marvin Bagley to the Detroit Pistons. After arriving in Sacramento, Jackson played sparingly until the very end of the season. Jackson logged less than 5 minutes per game (and sat out entire games on a regular basis) until March 30th, after which he played at least 10 minutes per game and played the remainder of the schedule.

In those final six games, Jackson played fine. He wasn’t great, he wasn’t awful. He was statistically similar to the player he’d been for the Detroit Pistons, where he’d played quite a bit more this season.

In 52 games with Detroit:
18.1 MPG, 7.1 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 1.3 AST, 0.5 STL, 0.5 BLK

In those final 6 games with Sacramento:
17.4 MPG, 8.0 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.7 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.5 BLK

Which begs the question, why in the world didn’t Jackson get more minutes? Why did Alvin Gentry glue him to the bench, and why didn’t the front office insist upon him getting a longer look?

After all, Jackson finishes this season at just 24 years old even though it feels like he’s been in the league forever. On a team lacking wing depth, Jackson stands 6’8″ and is still an explosive athlete. I’m not terrible bent out of shape over him not playing more, considering he’s essentially a journeyman clinging to his spot in the NBA at this point, but at the time of the trade it seemed like the Kings were taking a flier on Jackson to get a look at him as someone who could potentially be with the team beyond this year.

Now, that feels unlikely. Jackson will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and I’d be a little surprised if he came back. And that may not be a bad thing. Perhaps the Kings watched his practice habits and knew everything they needed to know. I’m just speculating at this point, and in the grand scheme of issues facing the Kings organization, this is small potatoes. But if you do enough small things well, they add up to doing big things well. And if you do a lot of small things poorly, they add up to doing big things poorly.

Whether the Kings handled Jackson well is a mystery. But it certainly seemed strange.

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Want2win
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April 16, 2022 9:05 am

Josh Jacksons lack of PT is as baffling as Holiday getting so many minutes

NowLoveThemOnceAgain
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April 16, 2022 9:42 am

Looking for actual expert assessment on player skills and attributes. How about interviewing Coach Christie or other professionals?

RikSmits
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April 16, 2022 11:18 am

he’s essentially a journeyman clinging to his spot in the NBA at this point

I stopped reading here, because what more is there to say, really?

Carl
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April 16, 2022 11:59 am
Reply to  RikSmits

This. Jackson is on his fourth team in five years and has succeeded nowhere. Jackson didn’t play because the Kings already knew what they would get, which is not much.

I fully admit that the part of being a KIngs fan where I think marginal players might become something is broken. It’s just not going to happen, and I’m going to lose zero sleep over minutes of anyone on this team not named Fox, Mitchell, Barnes or Sabonis. I wish (most of) the rest of the players all the success in the world, but I don’t see any reason to get excited about their playing time.

Last edited 1 year ago by Carl
nico.zand
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April 16, 2022 11:27 am

Jackson started playing when the Kings started to try to lose. This could be the recap of his season (considering that he was getting more than 5 MPG in Detroit for exactly the same reason).

Adamsite
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Nostradumbass 14
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Nostradumbass 14
April 16, 2022 11:46 am

Who?
.
.
.
All honesty, the dude probably isn’t in the league next year.

BabalooMagoo
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April 16, 2022 12:26 pm

When you’re included as “salary filler” that pretty much says it all.

UpgradedToQuestionable
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April 16, 2022 12:26 pm

When it comes to The Association, The Sacramento Kings hold Flat Earth status presently – when one steps out of Vivek’s Kingdom, you fall off the map.

Josh Jackson, former 4th pick in the draft, rich of talent, bereft of attitude and/or ambition will live in the what could have been but never was territory like so many who have been to Last Stop BB Hell. In stark contrast to Frank Sinatra’s crooning of New York, New York – for the Sacramento Kings version it’s If you can’t make it there you can’t make it anywhere

His most endearing legacy is his refusing to meet with Boston GM Danny Ainge who had the #1 pick at the time and flew out West to meet him, and he refused to do so. Ainge traded with Philadelphia who grabbed Markelle Fultz. Ainge wisely selected Jayson Tatum at what should have been the Kings slot at 3 but didn’t happen due to the Vlade pick swap debacle which allowed the Sixers to facilitate that trade. Fortunately for Sac, PHX went Josh Jackson and not De’Aaron Fox though re-imagining that is an interesting exercise.

Unless injured, his being unable to get PT off of a tanking Kings bench summarizes his future prospects.

Next!

Adamsite
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Nostradumbass 14
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April 17, 2022 8:51 am

One of Vlade’s lone bright spots was drafting Fox, even famously saying he would have taken him at #1. Just imagine the horror if PHX had taken Fox at #4 and Vlade had taken Josh Jackson at #5, thanks in part to the pick swap that Vlade himself had done years prior. This franchise would be in an even worse spot than it is now. Part of me thinks PHX saved Vlade from himself by taking Jackson.

I feel the proof in this theory is Vlade’s other picks as GM. In that very same draft he traded the #10 (Zach Collins), which was acquired in the DMC deal, back to get picks 15 and 20. With those picks he took Justin Jackson and Harry Giles, both of who are now out of the league. And who are other players he could have taken with any of those two picks? Just John Collins, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby, Kyle Kuzma, Derrick White, or Josh Hart

Mike120
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April 17, 2022 3:26 pm
Reply to  Adamsite

And a guy named Donovan Mitchell. He turned out to be pretty good.

murraytant
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April 18, 2022 5:34 pm
Reply to  Adamsite

no pick swap (DUMG)= Jason Tatum at 3.

kgdobter
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April 16, 2022 12:36 pm

Off to China..

andy_sims
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April 18, 2022 9:50 am

Jackson is a peculiar case. He had a solid rookie season, and it seemed like he’d created a good foundation on which to build a nice NBA career. I don’t know if something happened in Phoenix, or maybe in Memphis, where he had a pretty unremarkable season in limited play. Hell, even in ’20-’21 for Detroit, he was at 13.4/4.1/2.3 assists per game in twenty-five minutes, which would be helpful off the bench.

This isn’t an advocacy to retain him, but I don’t see him being out of the league next season. You watch him play and he gives you those moments where you think, this guy could be really good! I’d guess that someone in the league will try and turn him into a reliable rotation player, and truly, I hope they succeed. When Jackson grooves, it’s lovely to behold.

murraytant
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April 18, 2022 5:33 pm

goodbye

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