It took three teams, four contracts, and 12 appearances, but Cedric Jackson finally got a chance to put his talent on display in the NBA last night in the Washington Wizards’ season finale, a 98-97 win over the Indiana Pacers.
In the game, Jackson set season highs for minutes played (19) and points (8). Granted the game was between two teams long eliminated from playoff contention, and Jackson did commit 5 turnovers to go along with his 4 assists. Still, the rookie point guard made plays down the stretch of an NBA game and scored all 8 of his points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning 3-pointer, the first 3 of Jackson’s NBA career, with 1:31 left to play.
The game was just his fourth as a Wizard and only the third all year in which he played at least 10 minutes. His previous highs of 15 minutes and 6 points each came during games he played as a member of the San Antonio Spurs back on March 13 and 12, respectively.
Jackson, who earned his first call-up from the Cleveland Cavaliers, saw both his minutes per game and points per game increase with each subsequent call-up. He finished his rookie NBA season (12 games played) with averages of 6.3 minutes, 1.7 points, 1.2 assists, 0.9 turnovers, 0.7 rebounds, 0.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. It’s a small sample size, but the fact that three different teams chose to take a look at him is proof that there is interest in the lightning quick point guard heading into next season. The biggest detriment of Jackson’s game is probably his shooting touch. He finished just 6-20 (30 percent) from the field, 1-6 (16.7 percent) from 3, and 7-12 (58.3 percent) from the free throw line.
After spending most of his call-up time with Cleveland and San Antonio riding the bench for playoff-bound teams, it was nice to see Jackson get an opportunity to finally play some legitimate minutes in the season finale for a Wizards team that has some serious questions to answer and holes to plug in its roster as it looks forward to the 2010-11 season.
An 8-point fourth quarter and game-winning 3? As Herm Edwards would say, he can build on this! If Jackson can put together a strong summer—especially if he can find a shooting coach and improve his outside jumper—then I’d say there’s no reason why Jackson shouldn’t be competing for a backup point guard spot in the NBA next fall, possibly even in Washington.
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