Can Reggie Jackson replicate this past shooting season for Detroit Pistons?

Reggie Jackson had the best shooting season of his career for the Detroit Pistons. Heading into the 2019-2020 season, can we expect Jackson to replicate this marksmanship?

Reggie Jackson had always been a ball dominant player. Detroit Pistons fans often grew tired of this playstyle, leading to many fans calling him a ball hog or attempting to play hero ball.

Whether these statements ever made sense, this was Jackson’s reputation.

Jackson definitely was a player who needed the ball in his hands to produce. And for what it’s worth, he was extremely successful at his playstyle when he first arrived in Detroit.

But, after suffering two back-to-back injury-riddled seasons and the arrival of Blake Griffin, it looked like Jackson was gonna have to change and adjust his playstyle.

This was a hot topic for fans, and it remained this way for the first few months of the season. Many wanted the Pistons to trade for a three-point specialist at the point guard position and just spot up while Griffin worked the offense. Some didn’t see the point in having Jackson out there, because he’s never been some three-point sniper.

Then you had people like me, who thought splitting the ball-handling duties between Griffin and Jackson would benefit both. It would take the load off of Griffin, while also trying to get the best out of Jackson.

And while Dwane Casey gave Jackson more pick-and-roll touches when he thought he was 100 percent healthy again, this wasn’t what shocked many Pistons fans.

Jackson ended this season shooting a career-high 37 percent on a career-high 5.7 attempts per game. Mind you, this was directly after a season that saw Jackson shoot a putrid 30 percent from distance on 3.8 attempts per game.

Jackson accepted his new role and obviously put the work in to succeed in said role. The question, however, is this:

Can Jackson replicate this career year in shooting?

The stats say absolutely.

The arrival of Griffin might seriously have saved Jackson’s time in Detroit. Griffin causes so much attention on offense that the players around him will get open shots. Add in when Griffin and Andre Drummond run pick-and-roll, and you have Drummond’s insane gravity rim-running, it sets up three’s for days.

Of Jackson’s 5.7 three-point attempts per game, 2.8 of them were on open (4-6 feet of space) shots. On these shots, Jackson shot an elite 45.5 percent.

2.3 of his attempts per game were also on very open (6-8 feet of space) shots. Jackson actually shot much worse on these shots, shooting only 33.3 percent.

In all, the main thing to take away here is that almost 90 percent of Jackson’s three-point attempts came on either open or very open shots.

Griffin is a superstar and will continue to command the defenses attention. Drummond will continue to be an elite rim-runner in the pick-and-roll that causes defenses to suck into the paint.

The Detroit Pistons did a good job at getting, not just Jackson, but the entire team great looks on three-point attempts.

Jackson also played in all 82 games. 82 games of 5.7 attempts per game is a large enough sample size to believe Jackson can and will hit these open or very open shots.

If the Pistons can create the same type of looks for Jackson they did this past year, there’s no reason to believe he can’t replicate his shooting.

He basically was being given five shots form shooting drills during games.

Defenses will likely adjust the Pistons next season and try not to dare players like Jackson to hit open threes. But, this won’t necessarily be a bad thing for Detroit.

As I wrote in this article about Jackson, Jackson had the explosion back this season as well. If defenses adjust and start to close out fast to respect Jackson’s jumper, he showed this past season he’s healthy again and will back defense burn for it.

So yes, if the Griffin and the Detroit Pistons can create these open looks for Jackson again next year he should be able to do the same amount of damage. However, if defenses do adjust, you cannot just look at his percentage from three to decide if he had another good year.

Teams respecting Jackson’s jumper next year could lead to much easier buckets for Griffin, Drummond, and even Jackson himself.

My guess will be that Jackson’s attempts may go down next year due to defenses zoning in on him behind the three-point line and closing out quicker, but I believe that will also play into Jackson’s and the Detroit Pistons hands.

On an unrelated note, Jackson’s story really is being re-written in Detroit. I was not the biggest fan of Jackson early in his career here, but he has done nothing but mature and earn my respect. The narrative that he’s a bad teammate and the thought that he’d have issues with Griffin was completely dismissed this year.

Not by anyone else but Jackson himself.

Jackson should be able to replicate this past season and continue to prove he is a serviceable starter for the Detroit Pistons moving forward.

Heck, if we hit December and Jackson is still playing this same way, I’d be completely fine saying Reggie Jackson is our point guard of now and the future.