Grizzlies: Where Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. ranked in B/R’s top-25 under 25

Memphis Grizzlies F Jaren Jackson, Jr. lands at the 19th spot on Bleacher Report’s list

It’s really hard to form an argument against Jaren Jackson, Jr.‘s positioning on this list. The Grizzly forward’s career has been riddled with injuries, and despite showing promise when he has played, Jackson, Jr. had a rough year last season.

I could spend my time complaining about the fact that Jackson was listed below players with a distinctly lower ceiling like OG Anunoby, Michael Porter Jr., and Brandon Ingram, but there are bigger fish to fry.

Specifically, some of the reasoning behind Hughes’ placement of Jackson could be brought into question. Let me give you an example using the primary reasoning behind JJJ’s placement on this list.

"It’s true that Jackson’s abbreviated season was rough. His flaws—an astronomical foul rate, dreadful defensive rebounding and an inability to defend the lane with force—were much harder to overlook when paired with a meager 28.3 percent from downtown."

My issue with this stands in the fact that Grant Hughes is placing far too much capital in what we saw from Jackson last season. We’re talking about a year where the 21-year old Grizzlies forward only played in 11 regular-season games before being thrown into a hostile NBA Playoff environment.

He didn’t suddenly become a horrible defender, rebounder, and shooter, though those were areas for concern — he was simply thrown into a lineup that had been playing without him for an entire season with little preparation. Pair this with the fact that a bulk of his “poor rebounding” came against Rudy Gobert, arguably the league’s best rebounder.

Sure, 19 is a good spot for Jackson on this list, but don’t buy into B/R’s reasoning much.