With the NBA season starting in less than a month, here are three takes going into the year.
The Problem With Jaren Jackson Jr.
Last season, in his fifth year in the NBA, Jaren Jackson Jr., 23, became the youngest player in NBA history to be awarded the Defensive Player of the Year award. Standing at a lengthy 6’10” with a 7’5” wingspan, Jackson Jr. has been able to develop into one of the best rim protectors in the NBA. His long frame allowed him to average a league-high three blocks per game over the course of the 2022-23 NBA season, his career high for a season. With that being said, “JJJ” looks fantastic on paper, so what’s the problem?
The eye test is the problem. When watching Jackson Jr. play, I can’t help but feel he is underperforming and showing a lack of overall effort. One of the largest areas he underperforms in is his rebounding. Last season, Jackson Jr. averaged a career high in rebounds per game with six. When comparing his rebounding numbers to players with similar body types such as Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Anthony Davis, he is not able to rebound at the same rate. Even a player like Robert Williams III, who is only 6’8” and played nine less minutes per game, averaged at least two more rebounds per game than Jackson Jr. Additionally, players like Mobley and Williams III consistently outperformed Jackson Jr. on the glass when going head-to-head. Getting a rebound in the NBA is dictated by one’s effort to be in the right position, something that Jaren Jackson Jr. has clearly struggled with.
The Timberwolves Should Trade Karl-Anthony Towns by the Trade Deadline
Karl-Anthony Towns has proven to not be the franchise player the Minnesota Timberwolves organization was desperate for. “Was” is key as Anthony Edwards has shown he should be the clear-cut number one option on the Timberwolves if they ever hope to truly contend. The duo has played together for three seasons now, and it has not translated into any playoff success. In theory, they have very complementary skill sets, with Edwards’s elite slashing and Towns’ three-level offensive game. In reality, one of them consistently overperforms in the playoffs, and the other consistently underperforms in the playoffs.
When it comes to trading NBA stars in the offseason, a large factor in determining their value is how they perform on the largest stage, the playoffs. This is something that the Minnesota Timberwolves’ organization must consider before they decide to keep Towns, a player who has yet to consistently perform well for an entire first-round playoff series, past the All-Star Break trade deadline. Over the course of 16 playoff games, Towns has averaged 18.6 points per game, about 4.5 points below his regular season average for his entire career. In the NBA, a star player has the ability to influence the result of a game more than any other professional team sport. Last year, we saw Jimmy Butler carry a team of minimum contracts and two-way players all the way to the NBA Finals. If that run shows anything, it is that the most important element to a team’s postseason success is the ability of their star to step up when the lights are at their brightest. Towns has only played in three playoff series in his career, so optimism still surrounds his potential. That being said, one more first-round exit could really diminish his value. If I was running the organization, I would move on while there are still plenty of teams interested.
The Celtics Have No Identity
The value of NBA players is not always relative to the numbers they produce on the court. In a lot of cases, role players performing lesser roles on the court may be instrumental to ensuring the team stays on a positive trajectory for the entirety of an 82-game season. It is for this reason that I am not entirely sold on the new Celtics look. With the additions of two all-stars in center Kristaps Porzingis and, most recently, guard Jrue Holiday, the Celtics have had to trade away pieces that have been pivotal in the success of the team’s last few postseason runs. Notable players traded or signed elsewhere this offseason include Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III and Grant Williams. For the past five or so years, Smart has universally been seen as the heart and soul of the Boston Celtics. Along with Smart, Grant Williams was very well received in the Celtics’ locker room, and Robert Williams III anchored the team defensively.
With the aforementioned players departing, Jayson Tatum may be required to step into more of a leadership role on the team, a position he has been rather reluctant to take up in the past. In recent interviews, Tatum has said that his soft-spoken personality has made it difficult in the past to manage all of the elements of being a leader for an NBA franchise. I think this is part of the reason the Celtics pursued a trade with the Trail Blazers for Holiday, an all-star level guard who showed he can be a reliable player on a championship winning team. My concerns lie more with the addition of Porzingis. In his last five NBA seasons, Porzingis has only played more than 60 games in one year. With the loss of Smart, Robert Williams III and Grant Williams, Porzingis’ health and the team’s overall continuity are going to play a very crucial role in the team’s ability to develop an identity before the postseason starts. As evident with the demise of the LA Clippers’ “Lob City” in the 2010s, chemistry is pivotal to winning a hard-fought playoff series.
