I am getting the same vibe with Jackson and Westbrook. Last year, Bledsoe made sure the Clippers had the same defensive intensity in the 15 min that Chris Paul was off the court that they had when Paul played, but Bledsoe could never flourish there because his strengths were too redundant and Paul was better than him in all other areas that mattered. I keep going back to the Bledsoe analogy, but it’s apt. He is so clearly the fourth most-talented player on that team (after Kevin Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka) that they have to play him with the starters at the end of games, but he can’t match up with the same players that James Harden or Kevin Martin did on the Thunder (though apparently Harden doesn’t anymore). He is not the perfect player for the Thunder. Here’s my caveat to Jackson that serves as a cap to his ceiling. Also, though Jackson’s 0.6 stl and 1.1 3pm aren’t spectacular, others are even worse (i.e. 400’s (and high turnover rates for those in 9-cat leagues).
How does he rank above all of them then? Because in the past two weeks, a lot of them have been killing their teams with field goal percentages in the.
It’s ridiculous to think he’s actually worth more than each of those players. Of course, Jackson won’t get you points like Parker, assists like Blake, or steals like Rubio, and Eric Bledsoe is still recovering from injury. Though Yahoo!’s player ratings are admittedly flawed, here’s a partial list of point guards that rank below Jackson (#70) over that two-week stretch: Jameer Nelson (72), Jose Calderon (73), Mike Conley (76), Jamal Crawford (84), Trey Burke (86), Ricky Rubio (100), Ty Lawson (108), Nate Robinson, (110), Tony Parker (124), Eric Bledsoe (130), Kirk Hinrich (132), Jeff Teague (142), Raymond Felton (154), Brandon Knight (169), Steve Blake (207). Those numbers don’t seem like much, but what stands out to a keen eye is that he doesn’t hurt your team anywhere. He’s averaging 14.9 pts, 3.6 reb, 2.7 ast, 0.6 stl, 1.1 3pm, 1.4 TO, 52.5% FG and 100% FT in 27 mpg over his last seven, all with Westbrook also in the line-up. However, as I said two days ago, Jackson now has been getting it done with Westbrook in the line-up. The problem with Jackson earlier in the year, despite my prediction, was that he could not find consistent minutes or production after Westbrook returned from injury despite clearly being the Thunder’s best bench player. Here’s a look at his line last night against Indiana: As a wise man once said, “Fool me once, shame on…shame on you…you fool me, I can’t get fooled again.” Despite getting burned by picking Jackson earlier in the season, I’m letting him fool me twice into believing he can co-exist with Russell Westbrook and become that James Harden/Kevin Martin-type off the bench. Yes, he is the first player to be the Pickup a second time. He’s owned in 23% of Yahoo! Leagues and 22.8% of ESPN Leagues. The Sneaky Fantasy Basketball Pickups for Sunday, December 8 is Reggie Jackson. This season I will highlight a notable player, based on the games played each night, who’s owned in less than 40% of Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball leagues.