Summary

Jackson had a rough first two years in the league - shooting poorly and not showing a lack for making winning plays on either end of the court. It's most likely not a coincidence (although the addition of solid veterans like Ricky Rubio and Aron Baynes certainly helped as well) that the Suns opened the season as hot as they did after giving Jackson a significant amount of minutes in the previous two seasons.

 

However, after spending the early parts of the season in the G-League, Jackson had a bit of a resurgence in Memphis. Before the season was suspended, Jackson had started to get real minutes for the Grizzlies. He scored efficiently and did so with a pretty high usage rate.

 

The question GM's will have this summer is whether that production signifies real growth or if it was unsustainable shooting over a small sample size. Either way, Jackson seems to have bought himself more time, which is great for him considering his career was looking like it was in jeopardy not too long ago.

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Cap Considerations

Jackson had the fourth year of his rookie option declined, so he will be a unrestricted free agent with a $8.9 million cap hold and limited Bird Rights. The highest starting salary the Grizzlies can offer is the $8.9 million amount of the option year that was declined. Even with Jackson's slight emergence playing in Memphis, this should be plenty to retain the former Jayhawk.

 

If another team has interest in signing Jackson, they could pry him away from Memphis by offering him more than the $8.9 million that the Grizzlies can offer, by either using cap space or the majority of the full Mid-Level Exception ($9.3 million).