LA Clippers: Predicting Reggie Jackson’s stats for next season
By Evan Desai
Reggie Jackson meant everything to the LA Clippers this past postseason.
‘Mr. June’ earned that nickname, but knowing Jackson, he’ll be eager to prove that he can play at that level year-round.
As far as the numbers go, I think he can perform like he did in the playoffs, and more.
Reggie Jackson is going to have a career year this season for the LA Clippers.
Reggie Jackson is going to be one of the top scorers on the LA Clippers.
He averaged 17.8 points per game in the postseason. He also didn’t miss a beat without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup. He actually improved, scoring 21.4 points per game in those eight games without Claw in the playoffs.
All eight of those games were against top two seeds in the West. This all goes to show that Jackson is more than willing to take on this new role as the number two scoring option for the Clips. Expect him to put up postseason numbers again.
I’m predicting Jackson to go for a career-high in points per game this year. He’ll put up 19 per game, and will prove that he’s a legit scoring threat from either guard position.
He can slash, he can finish, he can shoot from the midrange, but let’s also not forget how good of a three-point shooter he is. He shot 43.3% from deep last year.
While Kawhi won’t be out there to take attention off of Jackson, I still expect Jackson to shoot at this level. This is because nobody is going to want to try to trap Jackson once he crosses half court. The traps are going to come for Paul George on the wing.
The looks that Jackson is going to get from three are going to be just as clear as they were last year.
The only times teams will try to trap Jackson are when he’s on the wing in lineups that have Eric Bledsoe running the point. Bledsoe and Jackson won’t be on the floor together much this year, though, so expect Jackson to be handling the ball whenever he’s out there.
He’s going to get good looks from three, and will shoot at least 43% again this year. Expect another 45% field goal shooting year again too, as Jackson has proven how good of a finisher he is in the postseason. Kawhi not being around isn’t going to take those opportunities away.
Most of the lay-ups Jackson had in the postseason were created by himself and by his own quickness.
Jackson’s assists numbers will most certainly be better than they were last year. He dished out 3.1 assists per game last year. That, however, was in a regular season where most of his minutes came from the two guard position.
Sure, he played point guard most of the time in the playoffs and only averaged 3.4 assists per game. However, that was against the Dallas Mavericks (top five seed), the Utah Jazz (number one seed), and the Phoenix Suns (Western Conference champions). He won’t have to constantly face a gauntlet like that in the regular season, and he’s averaged up to 6.2 assists in a season before.
Therefore, his assist numbers are going to improve significantly. In the full four seasons he had in Detroit, where he was the starting point guard, he averaged 5.2 assists per game. Now with a better team around him, he’ll be even better. I’m calling 5.5 assists per game from Jackson this season.
Next. 3 goals for Reggie Jackson. dark
Jackson has turned into the third best player on the Clippers, and has a great opportunity to improve with Leonard out. Once Leonard comes back, the Clippers are going to have one of the best trios in basketball.