At the end of the third, every one of Sacramento's starters has played at least 25 minutes. No one has played 25 minutes for the Spurs, and only two players (Diaw and Parker) have broken 20... yet the Spurs lead by 9 with Duncan out.
Jackson can go 0/5 from the field every night and he's still better than RJ. Just because of the toughness/defense/focus he brings to the court. He might not be as skilled as he once was but he's always engaged and always playing hard. You couldn't say that about RJ who was out of it 90% of the time. RJs pussified attitude brought the whole team down.
Jackson just needs to settle into his offensive role on the team, which is NOT scorer. He should be doing the same thing Splitter is... move around off the ball, finish layups, and pass promptly as part of the play, but otherwise stay out of the way. They don't need him trying to create offense or jacking up a bunch of jump shots.
As long as Jackson never lands on top of Duncan while trying to rip away an uncontested rebound, risking injury to both players and occasionally causing a turnover, he's better than Jefferson. I don't know what was going through that guy's head sometimes.
I'm just talking about his offense. I'm still thrilled to have him on the team rather that RJ. It would just be assuring if his wide open misses were on target every once in a while.
Jackson played a solid game against LAL after a rocky start. He battled Artest hard all game. Can you imagine RJ trying to guard Ron? Just glad we don't have to deal with that anymore.
Jax has been struggling with the shot but he just needs to keep letting it fly these next 6 games to try to get some sort of rhythm back in his shot before playoffs. You know he won't lose confidence in his shot but he needs to get some more reps up. Tonight is a b2b2b and he isn't the youngest guy on the team either. Just something to take into consideration.
[This message has been edited by Its A Sher Thing (edited 4/18/2012 11:15p).]