I don't like players who don't give you anything when their shot is not going in. That's Jackson. Williams does not have to make shots to have an impact. So who do I trust? That's easy. Troy can be a Robert Covington level player. He's that good! How much better is Josh Jackson than Troy Williams, if at all? The Suns spent the #4 pick on last years draft on Jackson and we found a player who projects to be as good or better. That's something to get excited about more so than the recent shooting touch of Jackson.
Jacksons confidence and comfort is growing. You can see it. Same with Giles. Giles has more explosiveness and swagger than the first 5 games, a disastrous debut. Similarly Jackson has emerged from the abyss. I want to see Jackson keep it up. Why? So we can raise his trade value and dump him for Otto Porter. Keep netting those open looks off the D-Fox and Boggy wizardry so we can fool a team into taking you. Joerger decided to take Mason and Yogi out of the rotation to free up minutes for Troy. I like it. I like Mason but there are only so many minutes. I would have less patience for Jackson if he was getting minutes at the expense of Williams, a true difference maker.
When the season started, we had three budding star players. The pundits ignored this or didn't see it blinded by their disdain and bias. Fox and Buddy were emerging stars. Boggy was the best overall player on the team. All we needed to do to become a serious playoff contender was find complementary players around this trio. Like I said two summers ago we needed two of three frontcourt positions to be respectably manned. We needed competitiveness there. Last season we were 0 for 3. Willie failed us. Z-Bo failed us and the coach failed us for leaning on him so heavily. Vince and Jackson failed us at the three, we were mostly non-competitiveness a la the Suns on 2018, and Brandon went new coaching seeking.
The pleasant surprise this year is not Jackson, it is Shump and Williams. Those guys were on no one's radar when the season began. Ben was as viable of a wing candidate. The frontline has been respectably held down at two of three positions, with MB3 and Bjelica taking turns excelling at the 4, and two unexpected guys showing their wares at the 3. With our backcourt advantage and respectability elsewhere, we have the makings of a playoff team. We can sustain and build on our .500 record. Even with his mini-surge Jackson has been irrelevant to this equation.
I loved what Willie did last night fronting the post and setting the tone in the first quarter. Where has this been for the last 4 years? Asking Willie to front the post forces him to try, to become engaged, to fight, to use his quickness ( a strength) instead of his bulk ( a weakness). More of this please. Did the coaches just think of this strategy? Were they negligent in not introducing this strategy sooner? Just like I am not going to buy into one game of defensive impact, I am not going to buy into Jackson's "growth" over a small sample size. Talk to me in 10-20 games and we can reassess.
There is one last variable to factor. Confidence is contagious. Boggy knows he can slice and dice the opponent. Like Buddy he thinks every shot is going in. D-Fox knows he hound most PGs defensively and go by them to the cup too. Shump has some irrational and rational confidence about him. Teammates can feed off this. It is how LeBron has buoyed the Lakers. He actually coasts a lot defensively but his presence out there lifts the team to another gear when they need it. I think Boggy can have a similar effect as much as anyone, D-Fox and Buddy to lesser degrees. When we see these second tier guys have their moments to shine, Jackson and Giles, I attribute part of it to overall growing sense of confidence trickling down from our best players.
But don't get fooled into thinking Jackson is the formidable force and "Super Sub". He's made open shots recently. It's about friggin time. Keep it up, Jackson, keep it up Willie, your plane tickets to Washington may depend on it.
