Jaren Jackson Jr.'s rare accomplishment in the Grizzlies' history

At age 25 and playing in his seventh NBA season, Jaren Jackson Jr. has established himself as one of the best defensive players in the NBA with an offensive game that continues to evolve. After playing the most games for the team in an injury-riddled season last year, Jaren has brought a lot of the skills he worked on during that trying season into the 2024-25 campaign.

Coming off making first-team All-defense in 2021-22, Jaren Jackson Jr. won the Defensive Player of the Year award and made the NBA All-Star team in the 2022-23 season. He followed that by averaging a career-high in points with 22.5 points last season as the team's best and healthiest player.

After missing the Grizzlies' first two games this season, Jaren has averaged 19.6 points on a career-high 57.8% shooting and 40% from three as he has added the full package to his offensive game. Ahead of the Grizzlies' matchup against the Washington Wizards, Jaren Jackson Jr. became only the seventh player in franchise history to accomplish this scoring feat:

6,000 Career Points

The Grizzlies franchise has only been around for 29 years, including 23 years in Memphis. Jaren Jackson Jr. joined Mike Conley Jr., Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Pau Gasol, Rudy Gay, and Shareef Adur-Rahim as the only players in the franchise's history to score 6,000 career points in a Grizzlies uniform.

All but one of those players (Adur-Rahim) accomplished this feat with the Memphis Grizzlies as the franchise moved from Vancouver in 2001. Jaren Jackson Jr. is securing his legacy as an all-time Grizzlies great and this scoring feat will only help his trajectory as his offensive skillset is at its peak.

Jackson Jr. was the first player to help the Grizzlies transition from the "Core Four" era. He played one season with Mike Conley and Marc Gasol before Ja Morant entered the fold. Now, he, Ja, and Desmond Bane are the next core for the Grizzlies as they look to take this team to new heights.

Ja Morant is only 52 points away from making it to the 6,000-point club so Jaren will have competition with his fellow star teammate going forward on who finishes higher on the Grizzlies' all-time scoring list. However, more pressing issues are at hand as the team tries to overcome another injury-riddled start to the season to stay competitive in the Western Conference.

Jaren is continuing to get better as his prime NBA years come up and the Grizzlies' hopes of bringing the city its first championship will hinge on his development in the scoring department when the games matter the most come playoff time. The Grizzlies' franchise history will have Jaren Jackson Jr.'s name mentioned with the greats but he has an opportunity to make it greater.