Detroit Pistons: Assessing Reggie Jackson’s trade value

1. Manageable cap number

After the summer of 2016 spending spree, Jackson’s contract number has slowly dwindled to a far more respectable level. While some point guards are still much better bargains, such as Kemba Walker or teammate Ish Smith, the 13th overall salary among point guards is much easier to swallow — particularly for contending teams where cash isn’t as much of an issue, if they view Jackson as the piece to help them contend. His deal isn’t as immovable as it once was.

The more that Jackson stays healthy, the higher his value climbs. Health has always been Jackson’s major nemesis, so if he shows that he can be healthy and contribute, teams looking into the point guard would be much more willing to take on the roughly $35 million that Jackson is owed over the next two seasons.

Jackson needs to rebuild some value after struggling over the past couple of weeks, but he can easily do that with a good set of games. While $17 million is a lot to pay for a backup player, there are a few teams that might be willing to pay it to put them over the top. Money can be the thing that scares some teams off, but Jackson has the talent to make a trade worth it in the right role.