Grizzlies: GG Jackson reveals what he plans to add to his game during exit interview
By Mark Nilon
At 27-56, the Memphis Grizzlies had themselves quite a tumultuous 2023-24 campaign. Still, even with their lacking success rate, the ball club still managed to find some bright spots throughout their 82-game journey, with the emergence of GG Jackson being perhaps the brightest of them all.
Selected 45 overall in last June's draft, in just a matter of months the forward went from a raw prospect logging minutes in the team's farm league to being argued as "the best-looking prospect" Zach Kleiman and company have rostered since taking Ja Morant second overall back in 2019.
From his scoring prowess to his sheer athleticism, the 19-year-old quickly won over the confidence of coach Taylor Jenkins while his youth-filled and playful demeanor managed to win the hearts of Grizzlies nation as a whole.
Of course, even with his impressive showing as a rookie, the hope now is that Jackson will look to expand upon his game and add some more moves to his bag of trick in order to have an even better sophomore campaign in 2024-25.
Fortunately, it appears the youngster is already focused on just that, as he highlighted a number of things he wishes to work on this summer during Monday's exit interviews.
Grizzlies rookie GG Jackson addresses what he wants added to his game
"This offseason, [I] definitely [want to work on] consistency with my shot. I feel like I've shown that I can shoot the ball but when it's off, like, it's off. I got to work on getting it somewhere consistent. And really my defense, because I know that's how I'm going to stay on the floor next year a lot. Because with those high-caliber guys coming, they're obviously going to work on defense, but we need them to put the ball in the basket for us so, you know, that load is definitely going to fall on me and Vince [Williams Jr.] for sure. And I want to try and add a floater into my game because bigs, that high center, they drop fast so as soon as you get past the free throw line if you can just get a soft touch I feel like that would be very very good. Corner threes is big [as well]."
- GG Jackson
Even without all the attributes he mentioned, as noted earlier, Jackson still found himself putting forth a phenomenal rookie season as a member of the Grizzlies.
Through 48 games played, the tweener forward wound up posting impressive per-game averages of 14.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists while shooting 35.7 percent from distance.
While he did mention how his shot may have been a bit streaky at times throughout the campaign (he would go 1-for-13 one night only to then follow things up with a 5-for-7 showing the next), his final two games of the season showed the absolute wonder of a talent he can be when his jumper is flowing, as he registered a 31 point game and then a 42 point game during the club's finale while cashing in on 49.2 percent from the floor and 42.3 percent from deep throughout.
If Jackson can manage to work on all the things mentioned during his presser and add them to his arsenal in time for next season, the league should be scared of the idea of going against the likes of him, Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. all at once.