Reggie Jackson stood in the corner effortlessly flicking 3-point shots, new Pistons shooting coach Dave Hopla, arms crossed, studying him intently from 15 feet away. After four straight makes, Jackson yanked one inches left of dead center, castigating himself before the ball began its downward arc and hit off the inner back rim.
That’s where his expectations are these days after a summer spent rebuilding his stroke, suffering through the transition and then seeing the fruits of his labor.
“I’ve been focused a lot on my shooting (this off-season), making sure I’m balanced,” Jackson said upon returning to Auburn Hills last week to dig in and prepare for his first full season with the Pistons, armed with a new contract widely reported at five years and $80 million – an investment that underscores the trust Stan Van Gundy has placed in him and his place in the franchise’s future.
Jackson’s summer began with a visit from Van Gundy to his off-season training base in Los Angeles, where their findings were revealed to him after intensive film study.
“They found I had a problem basically with my leg strength. My knees collapse, so I wasn’t getting power on my shot. They thought it was a pretty good stroke, so I wanted to work on my lower-body strength with my strength coach. It was hard to break. It was annoying. There were literally frustrating days, but I’m happy about all the work we put in to try to redefine the base of my shot. I think it’s been helping tremendously on my consistency in shooting.”
The lack of a consistent 3-point shot was the caveat attached to evaluations of the trade that sent Jackson to the Pistons last February for Kyle Singler, D.J. Augustin and 2017 and ’19 second-round picks. Yet even with the flaw in his delivery, Jackson shot .391 from the arc over his dynamic final 16 games when he averaged 20 points, 11 assists and five rebounds. Analytics suggest free-throw shooting is generally an indicator of 3-point shooting potential and Jackson, a career .856 foul shooter, aces that test.
He knows a 3-point shot opponents have to respect will grease the wheels of a Pistons offense that will have at its core the Jackson-Andre Drummond pick and roll. The potential for that staple of Van Gundy’s playbook should only be enhanced by an attack that for 48 minutes this season should feature a 3-point threat lining up at power forward, likely Ersan Ilyasova and Anthony Tolliver. His success last season came in spite of defenders routinely ceding the 3-point shot to Jackson by diving under the pick to limit his ability to penetrate and impede the path of the pick-setter – Drummond, more often than not – in rolling to the rim.
“Everybody was trying to go under a lot, take out the option of me turning the corner,” he said. “They did a good job of that and they kind of took away our options. When I went back and watched film, I’ve noticed it over my career. But now I’m actually going to be in the position, knowing my role is bigger here, I can’t have people going under all game because it causes problems, especially if that’s going to be the majority of our offense. I have to find a way to manipulate that to take care of my teammates and make this offense flow pretty seamlessly.”
His ability to manipulate a one-note defensive scheme designed to cut the pick and roll off at its knees figures to be enhanced by the quirk Van Gundy and his staff uncovered in their exhaustive review of last season.
“The coaches did a great job of evaluation,” Jackson said. “I was extremely thankful when they come out and saw me in LA. They told me they’d been breaking down tape with Dave Hopla. Coach Stan was the first to bring it to me. He said I had a tendency for me knees to collapse. I knew that from watching film in the past, but I never equated it with, yeah, your legs are your power and you don’t squat with your knees in. It’s hard to lift the ball with your knees in. I learned a lot from that and I’m trying to be consistent with it.”
Coming Wednesday, I’ll have more with Jackson, his increased comfort level going into training camp and his expectations for the season ahead.