The Sacramento Kings have no shortage of big men since they made the (great) decision to draft Willie Trill Cauley-Stein, but the guard situation in Sactown is a bit more uncertain. Darren Collison is very solid, but I’m not sure he’ll ever match up to other Western Conference point guards.
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Having to keep up with the likes of Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and more is obviously not an easy task, and it doesn’t make Collison a bad player that he isn’t one of those guys. But it does mean that he may not be a championship caliber team’s starting point guard.
So, that leaves a hole at the point guard spot that the Kings will need to fill before they can become true contenders. One young player who just might be good enough to fill it is Reggie Jackson, a Detroit Pistons restricted free agent.
I’ve covered Detroit in the past and know a bit about Jackson, and if there’s even a small chance Vlade Divac can pry him away from the Pistons he needs to go for it.
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/29/2015.
The above chart shows the difference between Jackson’s bench stint in Oklahoma City and his starting tenure in Detroit, and the production change is huge. Jackson averaged 17.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, making him a constant double-double threat.
Compare that to Collison’s 16.1 points and 5.6 assists in 2.6 more minutes per game, and it’s clear that Reggie Jackson is far and away a superior playmaker. And that was with limited offensive tools such as Andre Drummond and Anthony Tolliver surrounding him.
I would love to see the deadly offensive attack that Jackson, Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins could lead. Scoring would come in droves in Sacramento, and Willie Trill would ensure that opposing offenses don’t cause too much havoc in return.
Although Jackson did struggle defensively, posting a defensive rating of 109 (which is less than good), he was actually one point better than Collison’s 110 d-rating meaning Jackson is at least as good defensively and better offensively.
Bringing Collison off of the bench would be ideal (like I said, he’s not bad by any means, just not up to snuff to start at point guard in the West) especially if Jackson was the starter in Sactown.
Before you get too enamoured with Reggie, keep in mind that Detroit most likely plans to keep him and has the option to match any contract offered to their young guard. I don’t think Stan Van Gundy will let Jackson go, but I do think that it’s worth the chance for Vlade to at least make Van Gundy put his money where his mouth is.
Jackson is definitely worth $12-$15 million a season, especially considering he should continue to get better considering he’s only 25 years old. Why not take a chance to make a big move here and add a potential future star to the Kings’ future?
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