Philadelphia 76ers: Reggie Jackson needs “The Process”

The Los Angeles Clippers are taking a gap year.

Now granted, it sure didn’t look that way when they bested the Philadelphia 76ers after being down by 26 in the third quarter, but it’s true; with Kawhi Leonard on the mend with an ACL injury and Paul George having missed 20 of the team’s last 25 games, the 23-24 Clippers probably aren’t making it very far into the playoffs, if they make it into the big dance at all.

That means, at least according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, that the Clippers might just be willing to cash out on the 2021-22 season, and some of their veteran players, in favor of adding young ascending players on cost-controlled deals who could theoretically play a role on the team when Leonard and George are back to full strength this fall.

Unconventional? Maybe a little bit, as both Leonard and George could be back in time for the playoffs, but after watching sub-25-year-olds like Terrance Mann, Amir Coffey, and Brandon Boston Jr. turn in solid performances while the vets are away, the idea of developing a few young rotation players isn’t the worst idea, especially for a team without much cap flexibility and very few moveable draft picks.

Of the veteran players on the Los Angeles Clippers right now, the most logical target that the Philadelphia 76ers could pursue is probably Marcus Morris, who is a rebounding 3-and-D combo forward with Philly roots (more on him here). But if Daryl Morey wants to think a little outside the box and pursue the sort of playmaker this team desperately needs, maybe he should instead call about Reggie Jackson, a player affectionately known as “Mr. June” for a very good reason.

The Philadelphia 76ers could buy-low on Reggie Jackson.

Reggie Jackson is having a weird season.

After turning in a career-rejuvenating playoff run in the summer of 2020, where he averaged 17.8 points on 48-41-88 shooting in 32.7 minutes of action per game, Jackson is averaging the most points of his career (16.6) since 2015-16 but is doing so on pretty horrible shooting numbers, averaging a shooting percentage of 38.5 from the field and 32 from deep. Jackson has failed to score in double-digits on six occasions, versus 12 games with 20-plus, and after finishing out every season since 2013-14 with a positive offensive Raptor rating according to FiveThirtyEight, The Boston College product is in serious danger of having his first negative campaign at a very meh -1.0.

For those who don’t pay close attention to FiveThirtyEight, that mark ranks 197th out of 279 qualifying NBA players who have played at least 500 minutes so far this season.

But why could this be? Why is Jackson scoring a bunch of buckets but doing so inefficiently?

Easy: Jackson is being overextended.

Much like Joel Embiid being tasked with keeping a team afloat down some $33 million in on-court talent on any given night, Jackson had been tasked with taking on a bigger role sans Kawhi Leonard and Paul George than he probably should for a plucky Clippers team unwilling to simply lay down and die. Only 37.2 percent of Jackson’s shots have been assisted versus 53.2 last season, and despite some strong showings from Terrance Mann, Nicolas Batum, and B.J. Boston Jr., he’s still been tasked with running the show for a team with a mismatched supporting cast ranging from good to non-existent depending on the game.

In a way, Embiid and Jackson are sort of built for each other in that the former needs someone who can dish out dimes, be a floor general, provide offense when Tyrese Maxey is off the court, and drain open 3s when they are available, and the latter simply needs a smaller role in an offense, especially one where he can tag up with an elite post presence for his signature play, the pick-and-roll.

In Detroit, when paired up with Andre Drummond, Jackson was a very good offensive weapon. He shot 3s at an average clip, but the meat and potatoes of his offense were as a driver slashing down in the paint and as a passer, where he dished out an average of 5.6 dimes per game, including a career-high 9.6 during his first season in the Motor City. Since arriving in LA, initially as a buyout signee and then on a one-year, $2.3 million contract, Jackson has abandoned the playmaking somewhat in favor of playing a career-high 38 percent of his minutes off-ball and has developed into more of a shooter as a result, elevating his 3 point shooting up to 37.6 percent of 5.3 attempts – both of which are career highs – with almost 41.6 of those attempts coming without a dribble.

Jackson has also embraced the role of LA’s closer in place of Leonard and George, where he ranks 25th league-wide in clutch scoring and has a shooting percentage of 43.9 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from 3. While those numbers aren’t elite, they are a marked improvement over his 2020-21 averages, where he ranked 152nd in clutch scoring behind both of his LA teammates.

Throw that all together in a more defined role, and what do you get? A do-it-all backcourt player who can play alongside Seth Curry, Tyrese Maxey, and any other backcourt combination Doc Rivers opts to throw at opposing teams.

Now granted, would things be better if Jackson was three inches taller? You bet, the Sixers aren’t exactly blessed in the height department and have a ton of trouble when it comes to crashing the boards, but Jackson has played 549 minutes alongside Eric Bledsoe so far this season, and while the Clippers have been a net negative during those minutes, only 58 of LA’s 138 two-man lineups have a positive net rating so take that with a grain of salt.

If tasked with running some minutes at the one alongside Joel Embiid, Jackson could focus more on playmaking, pick his spots, and maybe not take so many darn shots, as he’s taken 93 more shots for the Clippers so far this season than he did in all of 2020-21 despite appearing in 25 fewer games. For the price of, say,  Danny Green, a young player, and a draft pick – the value of which depends on which young player the Clippers covet – the Philadelphia 76ers could upgrade their roster with a serious position of need, and LA could keep their roster loaded with a veteran for when George and Leonard return with the added bonus of securing more young talent that they can further develop down the stretch. More on-ball minutes for Mann, less pressure on Green to play hurt, and most importantly of all, some much-needed help for Embiid; what could be better?

Considering the unusual situation both the Clippers and Sixers find themselves in, this is the sort of mid-level deal that could make both sides better.

In a perfect world, the Philadelphia 76ers wouldn’t need Reggie Jackson. They would work out some sort of trade package with the Sacramento Kings centered around Tyrese Haliburton and would roll into the next decade with a perfectly composed backcourt of plural Tyreses. But if that doesn’t happen, a player like Reggie Jackson could be a fantastic consolation prize, as he’s like a cheaper Eric Gordon with a better passing pedigree.