What GG Jackson can teach us about situation and role
Some of the biggest reasons for polarization in a prospect are exemplified in GG Jackson's freshman season, so what can we learn from them?
enigma [uh-nig-muh] (noun)
a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation
a person of puzzling or contradictory character
a saying, question, picture, etc., containing a hidden meaning; riddle
Even the word itself has a vast array of meanings or outcomes, but all of them containing or relating to the words “puzzle” or “riddle”. The solving of both, I would equate to the struggle of evaluating the extremely young, intensely complex, yet innately talented GG Jackson.
One unavoidable fact you’ll hear when discussing Gregory Jackson Jr. is this. He’s the youngest player in this year’s class, as a should-be high school senior who just turned 18 before the switching of calendars.
The next topic of discussion you’ll typically hear is how this youth relates to either his immense physical tools and upside, or how it pertains to his number of shortcomings. No matter which direction the discussion takes, everyone seemingly has strong opinions about Jackson. You’d have to go on a search comparable to that of El Dorado to find someone who could really go either way on him.
Youth in scouting is tantalizing, and for someone with GG’s physical profile, it’s particularly exciting. However, youth can also be polarizing, explaining the roller coaster GG’s stock has seen throughout the cycle, and will likely continue to go through up until the night of the draft.
Gregory Jackson Jr. was born December 17, 2004, in Columbia, South Carolina, attending Ridge View High School. Jackson’s recruiting process contains a lot of back and forth. Originally the top prospect in 2023, committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels, he decided to reclassify into 2022, switching commitments to his family’s favorite team; the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Excitement for Jackson’s season, as a potential top-five pick in a presumably stacked draft class was palpable. Everyone knew the situation wasn’t the greatest, with this year’s South Carolina team cobbled together with a myriad of freshman, transfers, and a new head coach.
The turbulent season Jackson had because of this, was to be expected, yet, it was not treated as such. Often prospects in limited roles are touted highly for what they could do if extended further, and the inverse is true for prospects who were overextended. We rarely ask the question of what they would look like in smaller roles, failing to picture their overextension as a limiter in itself.
It’s a bit of a paradox that someone who has the freedom to take every shot — being the standout talent on a lackluster roster — is severely limited, but that was the case for GG Jackson. That sentiment is clear when you look at the perception of Jackson prior to college as opposed to now.
“Pushing 6-foot-9, Jackson has an ideal basketball frame. He's got long arms and a wiry build that will allow him to add needed strength without costing him athleticism and make no mistake, athleticism is a big part of his game. Jackson is able to fly around the court thanks to his ability to accelerate, change directions and get off the floor in a hurry in tight spaces. Though he still has to get stronger, his athleticism is all functional and he's able to play through contact and doesn't need a runway in order to take off. While his athleticism is an important part of his game and what helps to separate him from the pack, he doesn't have to rely on it.
Over the last year, Jackson has made significant improvements when it comes to his skill level. He is a more than capable jump shooter, has a nice jump hook and he's become a real threat to face up and attack off the dribble. His passing has some room for growth but he's improved greatly when it comes to recognizing double teams and finding an open teammate. On the block he has an advantage because of his quickness and while his perimeter ability is what may allow him to create distance between himself and other big men in the class, he has to be careful not to float around out there too much.
When he's got an even mix of inside and outside to go along with what he's able to do running the floor in transition, Jackson is a major problem on the offensive end. Defensively, he's ahead of the curve as well. He's got great anticipation, moves well laterally and uses his athleticism to his advantage so that he's an above average rim protector who can also defend in space if he gets caught on a switch and has to defend a smaller player.”
The positional label on Jackson’s game was power forward, and sometimes, small ball five. A player who could dominate size mismatches with athleticism and guard skills, but could go to work in the post or win as a roll-man doing the traditional big man things. All evident in this pre-college scouting report on Jackson.
That label changed quickly in college, as the roster around him saw Jackson as the Gamecocks' best shot creator, forcing him to transition into more of a wing-like player. Unsurprisingly, this transition into a completely new role caused Jackson to struggle. He boasted a 30.8% usage rate on a dismal 47.4% true shooting percentage; a combination of mass destruction, encapsulating Jackson’s struggles with this lofty transition in a less than ideal situation.
In high school Jackson flashed the abilities he was forced to rely on this past season, but having to stray away from comfortability clearly hampered his production. Certainly still able to get a shot off, launching 20.8 per 75 possessions, Jackson’s efficiency is what took the biggest hit.
Touted as an athletic threat who did most of his work around the rim, 61.9% of Jackson’s shots were jump shots. To put that in perspective, Ohio State’s Brice Sensabaugh; a consensus top-20 prospect highly touted for his shooting ability above all else; took jump shots at a 61.1% rate.
Of course, Jackson’s efficiency hasn’t been ideal, sitting far below what would be considered below average. The flashes with Jackson; however, have been fun, and when he’s shooting it well, he looks like a legitimate wing.
Take his game against Eastern Michigan, in which he had 24 points on 9/19 shooting. Almost all of GG’s buckets came from his jumpshot, which dropped in with efficiency for him. He got to his mid-post turnaround jumper, a shot that’s become a favorite of his, early on and then started to get comfortable from three. He was spotting up, relocating on the perimeter, taking advantage of defenders with their hands down, and just looked supremely confident.
Now this was an outlier shooting game for Jackson, and even in a high-level display like this, his weaknesses were still apparent.
Jackson’s decision making and awareness as a playmaker has been the main skill of his that’s come under scrutiny over the past year. In high school, it was a weakness, but seen as something not as dramatic, given bigs typically aren’t playmaking hubs. However, his assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.296 leaves a lot to be desired. There are countless possessions where if you look hard enough you can find an easy pass to a bucket Jackson missed, favoring a shot instead.
A good portion of the blame for this lack of feel for finding teammates can be placed on immaturity or just as a symptom of Jackson’s age, but that feels lazy. What about system? New coach, new team — there’s a good chance that Jackson’s struggles with offensive efficiency, both as a scorer and playmaker have something to do with a lack of time to mesh with what is a completely new roster for South Carolina.
These answers don’t provide much in terms of concrete evidence. They’re hypotheticals at best, and the real impact they have on Jackson won’t be revealed until we see him on an NBA court. They’re valid reason for optimism he can improve upon his weaknesses, yet provide nothing of substance to say that the weaknesses are null.
How do you weigh the positive performances with the negative ones in a situation that clearly has a negative impact. The answer I’ve come to is that you have to take it all at face value, and rely on statistics less to develop an opinion on a player. Just as metrics like offensive rating and defensive rating have fallen out of use for players across the board, due to how team performance weights into their calculation, the same can be said for just about any statistic for prospects who are overextended in what is clearly an ill-fitting situation.
So what’s the verdict on GG “at face value?”
It’s still very hard to say, because he’s such a unique prospect. The strengths are evident in the good games, but fail to outshine the weaknesses in the bad ones. We saw very little of what he was capable of in high school as a true-er big man this season, playing more on the wing or at the forward, and it overall led to a picture that was far different than the one you initially thought you saw. It’s like looking at an AI generated picture and without looking too hard, you see the essence of great art it’s drawing from, but once you look closer you can see the immense distortion.
The one thing that I can say will translate without a doubt is the athleticism. Jackson is huge, lanky with room to fill out and become a very functionally strong player, and he can run the floor like a guard, and when given a launch pad, he’s liable to jump out of the gym for a highlight block or finish.
Around the rim is where GG Jackson can end up being extremely dominant. He’s a ferocious cutter off the ball. He has great feel and speed on cuts to the basket, whether it’s coming from the corner, or following an action at the top of the key inside on a 45-cut. He also has great potential as a roll man, which is a roll that he excelled at in lower levels, but didn’t get the chance to showcase with the Gamecocks.
While Jackson’s feel on-ball as a playmaker is lacking, it’s a role that he’s had very little time to grow into. However, his off-ball feel as a cutter shined in limited opportunities, and even going back to high school, it’s something that pops.
The role he played in college, at least to the same extent, is likely not the orle he’s going to play at any other level, so these examples of feel hold more weight than the one’s he’s unlikely to be using in the NBA.
GG’s shown the ability to use these athletic tools and feel on defense at times, as well. Specifically in high school, he was well-known for his versatility at the four, being able to smother attackers and stifle shots as they leave the offensive player’s hands.
His sample in college was a mixed bag, heavily depending on his second effort. On almost all possessions where a player tried to get penetration against Jackson, he excelled moving his feet and absorbing any kind of initial bump, even creating legal contact himself at times, to purposely try and throw the offensive player off balance.
Where the variation in result lies; however, is what happens after this initial bump. If it didn’t stop the ball-handler in their tracks, sometimes Jackson would just freeze, and let the player get deeper and get up a shot; but when it did, oftentimes, it would end in a strong contest on a short shot, or a block altogether.
This type of point-of-attack defense at GG’s size gives him elite positional flexibility, and if he ever ends up being anything as a rim protector, he’ll hopefully be able to provide enough length and effort to be effective on that end.
His ability to showcase and rim protection was limited by being pushed off the primary big man spot, which was a limiter for him offensively as well, as GG turned into a mismatch nightmare as the sole big in South Carolina’s lineup, playing with more room to attack, especially in and around the paint.
This as a limiter for GG wasn’t something I fully took note of until a fellow draft analyst, Matt Powers (@DraftPow on Twitter) pointed out the information below on my timeline.
(Note: This data encapsulates individual offensive rating for Jackson. As a team, South Carolina was worse with Gray off and Jackson on.)
Even watching casually; however, you can tell rather easily that GG Jackson’s best role — offensively at the very least — is at the small ball five. In this setting, he’s playing around maximum spacing, in matchups where he can use his quickness and shiftiness to become an ultimate mismatch for opposing bigs, limiting the ability for other teams to bring help, or put a quicker player on him.
These types of lineups not only allowed for Jackson to be a more efficient scorer, but it allowed him to do this through giving him the space to get to better shots. He saw a noticeable uptick in his ability to get shots around the rim, as well as his ability to make them, and got to his midrange counters far more effectively.
The issue arises when we circle back around to Jackson’s defense, as, while I believe he’ll be a positive POA defender with length and could potentially become a good team defender, he wasn’t a rim protector at any point for South Carolina. For Jackson to function at the five it would take a very specific lineup, especially at the forward positions.
The hope is that Jackson will be able to get the same scoring boost from playing alongside a generally more spaced floor, or playing alongside a more stretched based five than Gray. If GG were to play five full time there’s a chance we get to see less of his handle, outside shooting, and off-ball cutting. All of which are what makes him such a special scoring prospect at his size.
However, the versatility of Jackson, and the number of roles you can project him into, makes him a surprisingly malleable prospect at the next level. He could ultimately grow into becoming a team’s primary shot-creator. A plus-sized forward who can break down a matchup with a quick handle, strength, and athleticism. He could be an off-ball forward/big, who cuts from the wings and corners, makes plays as a roll man, and catches the ball in the dunker spot for easy rim attempts. Whatever way you want to look at it, GG is a special talent.
Overall, GG Jackson is one of the most talented — and I’d argue one of the best — prospects in this entire class, despite the polarizing narratives that surround him. He was plagued by situation, being forced into a drastically different role with no roster continuity from last season and struggled to find efficiency on all three levels.
However, the talent is so very evident with GG, and I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record with that term, but it just exemplifies Jackson so well. A huge forward with the ability to create his own shot off the dribble and athletic traits few at his size possess? It’s hard to ask much more from a player who has been covered mostly as an “upside swing” or “project.”
The floor, as it pertains to Jackson, is only going to raise at the highest level. He’s a high-level cutter and, as previously mentioned, a great athlete. GG’s combination of speed, vertical pop, balance, and explosiveness creates a unique physical specimen.
The clear separation factor for GG; however, is the upside he has to be a legitimate shot creator at the next level. The dynamism in his handle is evident whether you’re watching him casually or in a more intentional manner, and the effortlessness with which he gets to his shots and shoots the ball, with an array of moves and impressive footwork is apparent.
The areas for growth with Jackson are also abundantly clear, most notably, his playmaking and vision, which came under a lot of scrutiny throughout the season. Jackson missed a lot of easy assists, and missed a lot of crazy shots because of it. It’s easy for me to overlook this; however, with just how many other positive traits and skills he brings to a basketball any given night. I’m willing to bet on the floor being a lot higher than his doubters anticipate.
As it sits right now, I have Jackson sitting sixth on my big board, knocking on the door of top five, and I’m confident that it stays that way all the way up until draft night. GG’s a special talent, regardless of the fact that he became a legal adult less than a month before the turn of the calendar, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.