Brevin Knight (the Grizzlies’ color commentator, for those who, like me, don’t really know the names of the people behind the mics) sure seemed to be adamant about Jaren Jackson taking it inside and not “settling” for outside shots. Um, did he not see Jackson’s first ever Summer League game? You know, the one where he made a whole bunch of threes? I’m guessing that he didn’t see that game because otherwise he would never advocate so strongly for Jackson being an interior player. I can get wanting to see your young bigman ply his trade in the paint, but you don’t want the pendulum to swing too far in that direction. That’s how you end up with players like… Derrick Favors. Still good, but good be so much more.
And I wonder if Knight is forgetting that the threat of the three is what allows Jackson to do what he does. That dribble drive right past Markkanen for a layup wouldn’t be possible if Markkanen didn’t think that Jackson could maybe shoot a three.
Truthfully, without sarcasm, I can see his point. Jackson’s shooting form is still wonky (he didn’t say he was going to change it or anything, so that’s to be expected), wonky enough where it’s easy to not have much confidence that any particular three is going to go in. Like in the season opener, where he went 0 of 6 from downtown. On the flip side, his dunking form is perfectly textbook. I don’t know you could have dunking form that wasn’t textbook, but his is. His dunks inspire confidence where maybe his threes do not.