2023 NBA Draft Preview: South Carolina PF Gregory “G.G.” Jackson

2023 NBA Draft Preview: South Carolina PF Gregory “G.G.” Jackson

At the conclusion of his junior season in high school, Jackson was rated as a five-star recruit and was the consensus best collegiate prospect for the 2023 recruiting class.

He was committed to play for the UNC Tar Heels, and after being named South Carolina Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year, and winning the State Title for the second consecutive year, all signs pointed to a monster senior campaign.

But Jackson decided to take another route.

On July 14th, he became the first player since JR Smith back in 2003 to decommit from North Carolina. 9 days later he announced he would reclassify to the class of 2022 and play for South Carolina in the upcoming season.

He became the highest recruit in school history and because of his reclassification, Jackson is now the youngest player available in the 2023 NBA Draft.

But that comes with boom or bust potential.

The youngest player from previous years include guys ranging from Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Devin Booker to guys like Dragon Bender and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

The same goes for players who reclassified. Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns reclassified in high school as well. But that list also includes the likes of Marvin Bagley and Noah Vonleh.

Strengths

Jackson’s age is a plus for teams. Being so young gives him time to figure out his game and leaves plenty of room for growth which he certainly has.

In his one season at South Carolina, he led the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game and was second in rebounding with 5.9 rebounds per game.

Doing part of this while still 17 years of age has to mean something to scouts. And leading the team in blocks (26) and steals (24) on the season shows his physicality isn’t behind either.

Jackson also showed promising levels of consistency early in the season. To begin his college career he had 14 games of scoring in double digits.

As the season went on, there was some struggle but that was to be expected. He was asked to do a lot for the Gamecocks. And for any young freshman, there was bound to be ups and downs.

On the season, Jackson shot a whopping 461 field goals (over 100 more than the second on the team), 170 of which were from beyond the arc.

That’s a huge load. And no, he wasn’t as efficient as you’d like him to be, but there is a glass half full approach here.

As the losses piled up, Jackson didn’t back down. He continued to take responsibly night in and night out and that’s a trait you need to have in the long NBA regular season.

When he is drafted, he’ll be able to play at a comfortable pace that he didn’t have at South Carolina and that’s when his growth will take place.

Weaknesses

While Jackson did take on a huge challenge in his freshman year, that doesn’t excuse everything and it’s worth noting some of his drawbacks.

South Carolina was 11-21 (4-14 in conference play) and didn’t even sniff the tournament. The program hadn’t been great prior to Jackson’s arrival and it’s difficult to impose your will on an college basketball game as a 17-year-old.

But Jackson was visibly frustrated at times as the year went on and his improvement areas directly correlate to his maturity as a basketball player.

Defensively there is plenty to like. Jackson is a good athlete who should be able to guard all front court positions at the next level. But in college, despite leading the team in total blocks and steals, he wasn’t a great team defender and had lapses in the pick and roll.

Offensively, he led the team in scoring. But as alluded to earlier, that was on poor efficiency. He shot 38.4% from the field, 32.4% from three, and 67.7% from the line. He’ll need to improve his shot selection and those numbers will need to get better across the board.

Another thing worth noting, he also had 27 total assists compared to 86 turnovers. That’s an alarming number but he won’t be asked to run the offense in the NBA so teams might just look over it.

The bottom line is that all facets of his game took a hit from the stress he was under. So it’s not unreasonable to think he can break out in a lesser role as he develops in the league. Only time will tell with Jackson.

NBA Projection

Jackson will benefit most from going to a stable situation, on a winning team, with plenty of quality veteran leadership.

And luckily that’s where he is being mocked. Currently he is projected to go as high as late lottery and as low as the end of the first round.

A team like Miami (pick 18) or the Kings (pick 24) might be good spots. Both the Nets (picks 21 and 22) and Jazz (picks 16 and 28) have multiple picks in that range and the upside might entice them to take Jackson.

If he lands on the right team that can help his development, there will be questions about why he fell so low.