Jaren Jackson Jr.: 2018 NBA Draft player profile

Weaknesses

Frame 

Jackson is actually one of the younger prospects in the class. Most likely, he will be the youngest prospect selected in the lottery at 18 years old, and not even celebrating his half-birthday yet. This attributes to Jackson’s frame being an unfinished product. This unpolished frame leads to Jackson sometimes struggling to get positioning in the low post.

Here’s a play ran for Jaren Jackson to exploit a mismatch on smaller Purdue guard Dakota Mathias. Michigan State guard Matt McQuaid comes and sets a down screen for Jackson on the weak side. This leaves him to take advantage of his mismatch. Purdue center Matt Haarms helps on Jackson, but even if Haarms was not helping, the pass could have never been completed, as Jackson is unable to seal off the 6’4″, 200-pound Mathias.

Ball screen sample size 

With the high pick-and-roll being such an important ingredient in NBA offenses, it’s amazing seeing the lack of ball screens Jaren Jackson Jr. set at Michigan State. This could also be taken into team context with Nick Ward being a much more physical presence in setting screens.

However, it is still something Jaren Jackson had next to no experience with in college. This table shows the amount of ball screens Jackson set this year compared to other top prospects, according to Synergy Sports:

The only two top forward/center prospects that had less ball screener possessions were Marvin Bagley III and Wendell Carter Jr. However, this is important to Jackson’s future NBA scoring. If he continues to improve his frame and becomes more experienced in the ball screen game, Jackson could become a great rim-runner with his length and athleticism.

Shot diversity 

This last weakness is really nitpicking at Jackson’s game. With Jackson’s very low and awkward release on his shot, he will not project well shooting off of movement, or pulling up off the dribble, especially being guarded by NBA defenders that equal in size to Jackson.

Here’s a look at Jackson’s jump shot against Purdue. You can clearly observe the low release mixed with a push shot as well. However, do not get the wrong idea here. Jackson has touch shooting almost 80 percent from the free throw line, and shot almost 40 percent from the 3-point line. Unfortunately, the shot really only projects off the catch and not in any movement or pull-up scenarios.