2018 Orlando Magic NBA Draft Review: Justin Jackson always holds promise
Justin Jackson came to the Maryland Terrapins with a ton of promise. He comes to the NBA having to prove his health and a whole lot more.
When Justin Jackson arrived on campus at Maryland in the summer of 2016, Maryland Terrapins fans were rightly excited.
Justin Jackson was a four-star recruit with NBA prospects already who would add a wing attacker to the recently returning Melo Trimble. The promise for Maryland to compete and win the Big Ten were very real with this young group of players was very real. Jackson’s outside shooting and size as a wing would be the perfect complement to Trimble’s speed and shiftiness at guard.
As things would turn out at Maryland for Jackson, things did not quite work out that way.
The Terrapins in 2017 finished second in the Big Ten, but bowed out of the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament to a plucky Northwestern Wildcats team on its way to its first-ever NCAA Tournament and then lost to the Xavier Musketeers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Jackson would never really get the chance for an encore. A shoulder injury kept him out for all but 11 games in his sophomore season. It is the big reason he shot a horrid 25.0 percent from beyond the arc after shooting better than 40 percent his freshman year.
It feels like almost every part of his sophomore year — where he averaged 9.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game on that horrid 41.6 percent effective field goal percentage — should get wiped away. That is not the player he is. Although there are some encouraging hints.
And the Orlando Magic did not get a chance to see Jackson in action. He was a late addition to the team’s Summer League roster. But he did not play as he continues to recover from that shoulder injury. It seems likely Jackson will spend his first year in the G-League, allowing the Magic to retain his NBA rights. Think of how they handled Tyler Harvey‘s rookie year with the Erie BayHawks a few years ago.
The Magic are probably going to have to wait on Jackson. And the decision to go with another wing after drafting Melvin Frazier was a bit puzzling. But this was also a potential play.
Jackson has the shooting that Magic fans and this roster needs. And he has the length that Jeff Weltman and John Hammond like, measuring with a 7-foot-3 wingspan. There is plenty to like about Jackson when he is healthy.
The question is just how patient the Magic can be waiting for him to recover and what he can do when he is finally healthy.