Detroit Pistons: Why Josh Jackson’s offensive outburst is sustainable

What’s the same so far for Josh Jackson

Jackson’s scoring improvements haven’t been a result of some outlier 3-point shooting, as you often see from a surprising increase in productivity. In fact, he’s not a good 3-point shooter, never has been, and is shooting worse from long range than he has in any season since his rookie year.

He’s shooting just 27.3 percent from 3-point range, just a tick below his career rate of 29.7 percent. Jackson is shooting a higher rate of 3s than he ever did in Phoenix, with 41.5 percent of his attempts coming from distance, but it’s not a great shot for him and he can comfortably reduce that volume (and probably will as the season goes on and samples increase).

He also isn’t experiencing a major usage boost. His usage this season is 26.3 percent, just over his 26.0 percent rookie usage, 23.9 in his sophomore season and 22.8 in his short stint with the Memphis Grizzlies last season.

So without relying upon 3-point shooting variance to increase his scoring, and no major bump in usage to provide volume, where is this extra boost of offense coming from? And for that matter, what about it speaks to the continued sustainability?