3. Reggie Jackson, PG, Detroit Pistons
Heading into the final year of his five-year, $80 million contract, Reggie Jackson’s long-term future in Detroit is up in the air.
In mid-June, Pistons senior advisor Ed Stefanski said the team was “staying with the philosophy of building around” Jackson, Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond, according to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. But if Drummond turns down his $28.8 million player option for the 2020-21 season to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, it could force the Pistons to reevaluate that plan.
Injuries wrecked Jackson’s 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns, but he stayed healthy and appeared in all 82 games last season, averaging 15.4 points on 42.1 percent shooting, 4.2 assists, 2.6 rebounds and a career-high 2.1 triples in 27.9 minutes per game. That has the 29-year-old feeling good heading into this season, even if he doesn’t know what lies ahead.
“A few years back, I thought (my future) was retirement after this season,” Jackson told Beard last month. “I’m just happy to be in a good state of mind and playing ball this year. We’ll figure (the future) out from there. I’m excited about what we can possibly do this year.”
Even if Jackson dodges the injury bug again, it’s difficult to imagine the Pistons building around him as their long-term point guard beyond this year. He isn’t a good enough playmaker or long-range shooter to pair with Griffin, and he ranked only 71st out of 104 point guards in ESPN’s defensive real plus-minus last season.
If the Pistons get off to a slow start or fall out of realistic playoff contention by the trade deadline, they may decide to offload Jackson to avoid the risk of losing him for nothing in free agency next summer.