2018 NBA Summer League: 5 biggest disappointments

3. Josh Jackson

The fourth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft had an up-and-down rookie season, one where his fellow lottery forwards played past expectations. Some games Jackson came out and was something special, but more often his growth seemed to be stagnant.

Las Vegas was an opportunity to show the new Jackson that appeared in 2018, one ready to take on a leadership role on a team adding two more lottery picks. New head coach Igor Kokoskov came up from Phoenix to coach this squad and led them to relative team success, but Jackson was not the reason for that.

Touted as a talented passer who got his teammates involved, Jackson went full-gunner in his time at 2018 NBA Summer League. The former Kansas star got up 41 shots in his three games, hitting only 10 of them (24 percent). Despite having the ball in his hands a large amount, he only totaled four assists in his entire time in Vegas.

On a Phoenix team that just made Devin Booker the face of their franchise, that drafted an offensively gifted center in Deandre Ayton, that added shooters Trevor Ariza and Mikal Bridges to spot-up on the perimeter, Jackson’s role is not going to be jacking up shot after shot. Whatever he was trying to prove, he failed to do so, and was a resounding disappointment at Summer League.