Jaren Jackson Jr. is just here to play his game

The more cynical among us might believe that the weight of expectation has been placed on Jaren Jackson Jr. since birth. Naming a child can be significant for a multitude of reasons but the connotations, in this case, are pretty clear. When you attach the suffix junior to a name linked to 12 NBA seasons, one year in the defunct Continental Basketball Association, and one championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 1999, then, as Jackson Jr. himself explained, “I don’t think my parents named me after my dad thinking I’d get into badminton.”

But Jackson Jr. also never felt like a path to basketball was preordained or required. Speaking to The Step Back before a preseason game in Orlando, the 6-foot-11 rookie makes it clear that he’s made it this far because he wanted to, not because it was expected of him. “[My dad] guided me, for sure. He knew a lot, having played at every level, and if I ever had a question on anything, I could always go to him. But he didn’t try to influence me into making certain decisions or anything like that. He would always let me do my own thing.” It never felt forced, I ask? “Naw, Not at all. I mean, he’s happy, of course. Obviously, he’s happy about it. But I never felt any pressure to have to prove myself to him.”

That pressure exists, however, even if the source isn’t paternal. Jackson Jr. was the fourth selection in the 2018 NBA Draft after one year at Michigan State University. Lottery picks, even at 19 years old, don’t typically have the luxury of time before they need to make an impact. The “Grit n’ Grind” ethos that defined the Memphis Grizzlies for so long is over, with the personnel capable of actualizing it either gone or lacking the ability to do so consistently. But a vestigial self-identification lingers. The Grizzlies are still a determined group, still committed to a vicious brand of defense that once made up in success what it lacked in aesthetic. Marc Gasol and Mike Conley — along with the unwelcome spectre of age and injury — are still part of the roster. Jackson Jr. was added at least partly to initiate a move toward an unknown future and help usher Memphis’ next step along the evolutionary ladder.

The rookie’s boyish face sports a wide grin beneath a thin hint of a mustache as he talks about his role this season, one that his coaches, he says at the time, haven’t precisely laid out. “Nothing specific, per se,” he explains, “Just playing my game, doing what I do well, all the time, but at a higher rate.”

The simplified view makes sense because Jackson can, frankly, do it all. He is a rebounding savant, with soft, wide paws that pull down rebounds with ease. He has the quickness to guard players on the perimeter and the length — which he affirms he inherited from his 5-foot-11 mother and not his father, who is six inches taller — to erase shots at the rim. And, as a scorer, his abilities are even more diverse, possessing a polished inside game that’s balanced well with a deft outside touch.

And if possessing that wide a skill set might lead to complacency or arrogance, you wouldn’t know it from talking with Jackson Jr. There’s still too much work to do, understanding how to be more aggressive and consistent, youth and inexperience be damned. “To learn as much as I can,” he says is his primary goal for the season. His eyes light up then as he starts to consider everything that entails. “I’m just looking forward to seeing what this year brings because I haven’t done it before. I don’t really have any perspective on it,” he adds without a trace of irony. Perspective, it would seem, is just one more of Jackson Jr.’s many positive traits.

Acclimating to the NBA season has been an accelerated process for Jackson Jr. JaMychal Green suffered a broken jaw in the Grizzlies’ second game of the season so Jackson Jr. was inserted into the starting lineup. The results have been understandably mixed. There are flashes of that near-limitless potential. Rebounds in traffic over more experienced players. Slick back-to-the-basket moves that seem anachronous in today’s game.

Conversely, it’s his outside shooting that has been the biggest problem. In Orlando, days before Green’s injury and before the learning curve unexpectedly quickened, Jackson Jr. looked surprised when asked if he had any concerns about his shooting translating to the NBA. He nodded vigorously, a bemused smirk across his face. “Naw, not at all,” he said. Through five games, he’s missed all but two of his 13 attempts from 3-point range.

Instant gratification was never the payoff for drafting Jackson, of course. The Grizzlies franchise is at a crucial point, transitioning from one iteration into another that is largely nebulous. There’s talent to be sure, and Conley and Gasol, the leftovers of that bygone era, remain. They have Chandler Parsons for as long as he’ll stay healthy, and they acquired veterans Kyle Andersen in free agency and Garrett Temple via a trade. These are the transactions of a team that sees the postseason as a real possibility.

And yet, with the Grizzlies’ history of injury, those expectations are surely tempered. Already, Parsons’ knees have become an issue through the first month of the season. Gasol, the big bear in the middle, looks to be slowly preparing for hibernation. Conley remains an underappreciated superstar but for how long he’ll be able to play at this level is anyone’s guess. Moreover, the Western Conference is deeper and more dangerous than ever. Once, Memphis could be counted on as a surefire, bruising pitstop in the postseason race. Now, the wheels could come off at any moment, like buttons bursting from a strained shirt after too much Beale Street barbecue.

Jackson Jr. stands as the team’s hope, both this season and beyond. Like almost anyone associated with the team will tell you, the rookie’s talent and potential are obvious. But Conley, the team’s longest-tenured player, also recognizes Jackson Jr.’s mature-beyond-his-years approach. There is the on-court work with Gasol, learning the little tricks to gain any possible advantage. There are the film sessions where Jackson Jr. asks all the right questions. “There’s a willingness to learn…a professional mentality,” explains Conley. “That’s what you want out of a young player and we’ve got it with him.” But there are also hedged bets. “Hopefully, he’ll get adjusted right away and we’ll reap the benefits sooner rather than later,” says Conley.

J.B Bickerstaff is the Grizzlies’ head coach, officially given the reins this summer after being promoted in the interim last year. His father, Bernie, was himself an NBA coach so the younger Bickerstaff knows of paternal expectations. When asked in Orlando if his father’s experiences made the invariable losses any easier, J.B. rubs his fingers through a graying beard and said, “No. Every loss is still painful.” That he’d choose to go into the same profession after seeing his father struggle through four decades holding the clipboard goes a long way to show why that gritting, grinding attitude simply won’t die.

That misery isn’t apparent when Bickerstaff talks about Jackson Jr. He echoes Conley’s sentiments about Jackson’s maturity, how he carries himself even as every day represents new challenges. “He’s not afraid of making a mistake,” says Bickerstaff. “I give his parents a ton of credit. You just don’t become the type of person that he is and his parents clearly did a wonderful job.”

Bickerstaff gushes about Jackson’s versatility, how the coaching staff has emphasized making an impact on winning above all else. “We feel like he has the skill set to do that in a multitude of ways and it won’t be the same every game. Some nights, he’s going to have to block six or seven shots. Some, he’s going to have to make four or five 3’s, or grab five or six offensive rebounds, or switch onto a smaller ball-handler. But because of his skill set and his God-given length, he’s going to have to do a bunch of different things for us.”

And, like Conley, there’s an eye looking at the present while another is cast toward an uncertain future. “When he really becomes someone special — which we think he will be — is when he can do all of these things every single night,” says Bickerstaff. “That’s where he’s headed.”

For his part, Jackson Jr. seems blissfully unaware of any speculation. He is a teenager, after all, and balances a seasoned approach with a childlike awe. He acknowledges that basketball is his job now, but is still so young that he enjoys every second of it. It’s just fun to me, he says so honestly and pure that one hopes he’ll never lose that carefree innocence. He yells at teammates as they engage in a post-practice shooting session, chortles uncontrollably when he curses aloud in mid-interview and notices the voice recorder inches from his face, as if seeing it for the first time.

It’s a good thing that there’s no timetable for Jackson Jr. Categorizing him — with units of time, or labels or a position — seems a disservice. He is young and old, capable of greatness and folly, prone to laughter and wizened seriousness. Perhaps it is the benefit of his father’s experiences that allowed for that unique blend. He does, in his own words, his own thing.

Among his interests, he urges people to vote, even if he isn’t old enough to have engaged in the act himself. He explains that he worked at the polls when he was younger, at first only logging community service hours as a requirement before really enjoying the time spent as a witness to the electoral process. This is the dichotomy of Jackson Jr.

The smile is gone now, at least temporarily, replaced with a solemn, contemplative focus. “I don’t think a lot of young people think about voting, not as much as they should. People died for that right, that source of power, and they should use it. It’s a way for them to use their voice.” It may take time for Jackson Jr. to clearly find his own, but solace can be found in knowing that it will be expressed in many ways. Quickly, like a whisper in the dark. Or powerfully, like a bellowing roar.