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

Josh Jackson is scoring from all the right places

Without relying upon his jump shot, Jackson has been an absolute terror in transition. Per Synergy, 23.1 percent of his possessions have been in transition and he’s scoring 1.267 points per possession.

Jackson is getting out on the break when he has the slightest opportunity, and that’s a vital asset for a Pistons team that struggles to score in the halfcourt.

So it’s a positive that he looks to run and generate offense on the break, but that’s the easy way to score anyway. The halfcourt is where things generally bog down, and that will almost always be a less efficient zone than transition (and to be sure, you’ve got some real issues if that’s not the case anyway).

Jackson has been able to score effectively there as well, primarily off cuts and screens, taking advantage of playing with some excellent playmakers like Blake Griffin, Killian Hayes and Mason Plumlee.

He has just a handful of these opportunities, scoring 10 points in 11 combined cut and screen possessions, but it’s clear that his eyes are staying open for offensive opportunities and he’s pouncing at his chances.

Much of these examples are results of playmaking teammates, who will sometimes miss games or won’t feature with him in some lineups, or transition opportunities which are simply more frequent against bad teams. And not every team is going to be bad and yield excess fast breaks, especially as the season goes on and teams tighten up and get crisper in the way they run their own offense.

These are marks against Josh Jackson keeping up this production level. However, the biggest point in the favor of sustainability is that he’s converting previous poor offensive decisions into good decisions. Namely, his mid-range game and floater game have largely turned into strong drives to the basket for layups and dunks.

Jackson is able to pump fake into a drive here, and instead of putting up a floater outside the paint, he drives straight to the basket. In years gone by, he would often take the easy way out and end up with those low-value shots.

In his two seasons with the Suns, Jackson took 20.0 percent of his shots from the 3-to-10 foot range and 21.6 percent of his shots from 10 feet to the 3-point line. These are bad shots for almost everybody outside of Chris Paul, Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant, and Josh Jackson is no outlier.

It looks like 2020 is the year he himself learned that he’s no outlier and that he has to work for his offense. Through four games, only 11.3 percent of his shots are coming in that 3-to-10 range, and only 9.4 percent of his shots are coming in the 10 feet to 3-point line range.

He’s also playing a style that is more conducive to getting to the free throw line, and as the season goes on you should see his opportunities at the line increase as well.

Jackson has reworked his offensive game, transitioning from a talented prospect who nearly washed out of the NBA to a player with suddenly untold potential once again. It’s easy to forget after all the deservedly bad press that he’s gotten over the last couple of years that he’s just 23, and he was a top draft prospect in a great class for a reason.

He’s showing the NBA world the maturity they were waiting for him to display, and he’s doing it for the Detroit Pistons.