Detroit Pistons: 3 interesting statistics after loss to Spurs

Detroit Pistons: Josh Jackson’s strange stats

It’s really hard to know what to make of Josh Jackson.

He had 29 points last night and has been playing well of late. Jackson is averaging 16.1 points and 4.2 rebounds over his last ten games, which has been one of his better stretches of the season as a scorer.

But when you dig a bit deeper the numbers start to get weird. I’ve talked about how Jackson needs to get better from behind the arc and at taking care of the ball.

During this ten-game run, he has shot much better from 3-point range, hitting 45 percent. But (and there is ALWAYS a “but” with Jackson) he has only shot 46 percent overall. He’s been scoring a lot of points but is still doing it inefficiently. Jackson is shooting just 43 percent from the field on the season, which is 21st in the NBA for shooting guards.

His 3-point shooting has improved mostly due to fewer attempts but Jackson is still inefficient as a scorer.

How about turnovers? Well, in these ten games Jackson has averaged 2.2 assists, which is not great for a guy who handles the ball as much as he does. Jackson’s 26.6 usage rate is the highest of his career but his assists haven’t gone up.

What has gone up? His turnovers. Jackson is averaging 2.6 turnovers per game over the last ten and 2.2 per game for the season to 2.1 turnovers.

If Jackson wants to hit another level as a player it’s clear where he needs to improve. He has to be more efficient scoring the ball and he has to cut down on the turnovers.

I want to get excited about Jackson’s potential and he looks like a real one at times but there are a lot of players in the NBA who can score if they can take as many shots as they want and don’t have to worry about turnovers.