Frank Jackson decision a warning shot to Killian Hayes?
With Frank Jackson not getting his option picked up for next season, the Detroit Pistons are showing their patience for young players does have a time limit. Is this a warning for Killian Hayes, and his future?
With so many major off-season events coming quickly, one after another: the draft followed by the start of free agency and then summer league, fans can get an insight into what management really thinks about players.
During the season it’s the usual coach-speak: ‘We are very pleased with his development. He is on track. He’s a hard worker’ yada, yada.
There is a good reason for it; nothing is gained ripping your own players. Even if you do want to get rid of them, no point in lowering their trade value with negativity.
This is the time you get to know their real plans for players. Talk is cheap, but new contracts cost many millions. Decisions have to be made, some of them tough.
On June 28, one of the decisions the Pistons had to make was revealing.
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Detroit declined the option for 2022-23 on a contract for Frank Jackson. He is now an unrestricted free agent.
Jackson, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound guard, had been one of the Pistons successful reclamation projects.
A former first-round draft pick out of Duke, Jackson had been bouncing around the G-League by the time the Pistons signed him in December 27, 2020. He changed his position from point guard to a small shooting guard – and he could shoot!
In 40 games, Jackson made 40.7% of his three-point attempts and averaged 9.8 points for a Detroit team that badly needed scoring.
Jackson was rewarded with a two-year deal (second a club option). It was not an outrageous sum, Jackson was slated to get $3,150,000 a year, not that much more than the league veteran minimum. Yet, apparently, it was too rich for the Pistons to pay.
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Jackson did fit in with the Pistons culture. He was known as a good guy, a hard worker and never a peep of locker room trouble. And with the Pistons badly in need of outside shooting (29th in the NBA on three-pointers last season), that they would let go of one of the few guys who has shown they can hit the ‘three-ball’ is a bit surprising.