Phoenix Suns: 5 goals for Josh Jackson’s rookie season

3. Carve out role with new teammates

Jackson will have plenty to worry about individually as a rookie, but his first NBA season is really just the first stepping stone toward a brighter future for Phoenix’s youth movement as a whole.

The Suns’ championship prospects five years from now aren’t as contingent on Jackson becoming a go-to scorer or Booker averaging 30 a game as much as they are on a core of Booker, Jackson, Bender and Marquese Chriss learning how to complement one another and use their diverse strengths to cover for each other’s weaknesses.

As such, Jackson’s rookie year will be spent feeling out his teammates on both ends of the floor, all while lending his never-back-down mentality to a young group that’s already got plenty to say on the court.

On the offensive end, Jackson’s fit with #TheTimeline goes far beyond how often his three-point shot falls. His ability to attack the basket will be contingent on a more efficient Devin Booker and Dragan Bender spreading the floor. His slashing will be more effective with Tyler Ulis, Booker or Phoenix’s currently unnamed point guard of the future being able to feed him.

With T.J. Warren serving as the forgotten man, Jackson will be able to learn from one of the game’s under-the-radar cutters and finishers near the basket. He’ll need to learn how to spread the floor, when to defer to Booker and when to put his underrated scoring ability to work.

There’s no question that athleticism and speed are on Jackson’s side, as he frequently turned steals, turnovers and fast break opportunities into unchallenged dunks at the rim.

The path of no resistance isn’t one that’s traversed very often at the NBA level, but getting out and running with this young group is a good way to get Jackson easy looks and build his game-to-game confidence.

On the defensive end, Jackson will be responsible for undertaking whatever defensive assignment is thrown his way, while also learning how to help whenever there are lapses in focus (Eric Bledsoe), size (Tyler Ulis) or simple effort/know-how (Devin Booker) on the perimeter.

He’s not strong enough to guard 4s just yet, but that probably won’t stop head coach Earl Watson from trying as soon as next season with small-ball lineups.

As a rookie, Jackson should have plenty of individual things to work on, but one of the biggest things that will determine the success of 2017-18 — and the early stages of #TheTimeline as a whole — is how well he meshes with Booker, Bender, Chriss, Ulis and the building blocks of the future.

"“When I look at Phoenix, that’s one of the things that really excites me is that they’re young,” Jackson said. “I know that I got a lot of things to learn coming into this league. I know that they still got some things that they need to learn, but being able to learn those things together and come up and group up together, I think down the road that will make our team chemistry just so much better and end up making us a really special team.”"