To the general NBA fan, Quenton Jackson may have come out of nowhere this season. When he posted a career night on Saturday, with 25 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 0 turnovers, and about a dozen clutch shots in the Pacers' comeback win against the Warriors, plenty of folks were hearing his name for the first time.
But Pacers fans have been on the Q Train for well over a year now, and with by far the biggest opportunity of his career in front of him, Jackson has a chance to add some real intrigue in a season that was potentially lacking in that regard without Tyrese Haliburton — assuming that Jackson's hamstring injury, which he suffered on Monday night, will not keep him sidelined for an extended period. Can we please turn off injury sliders? This isn't fun.
Yes, it's a lot of pressure to say that a 27 year-old who's scored under than 300 points in his NBA career is going to "save" a team's season. And no, Jackson will not save the Pacers from the lottery this year — but he's almost surely going to save them from not having any promising developmental stories in the backcourt, even with Ben Mathurin out for the foreseeable future.
That's because any value Jackson provides is a win for the Pacers' scout team and development staff. He began his Pacers tenure as a two-way player at the end of the 2023-24 season, playing in just three games for the Pacers. Last year, still on a two-way, he appeared in 28 games for the pro team, impressing in limited minutes and earning himself another two-way deal in 2025-26.
Quenton Jackson is taking advantage of his first real opportunity
Very quickly, Jackson has made a case to earn a standard NBA contract. If that ends up being the case, it will be a pretty nice silver lining in a backcourt that's dealing with numerous injuries to key contributors.
Jackson was a good player at Texas A&M, where he played for three seasons, but was never a standout on a national level. After going undrafted in 2022, he played a bit for the Wizards but spent most of his first two professional seasons in the G League. A few years later, he looks like another unearthed gem by the Pacers.
At this point, I would be pretty shocked if Jackson spends any more time with the Noblesville Bloom.
Jackson has bought into the Pacers system
After his career night, Jackson gave credit to his coaches and teammates for emboldening him as a player:
"I think my game just fits into our system... Not only the coaches, but the players, they allow me to be me, they give me the confidence to be me... Just trying to give teams a different look, somebody else to guard. Tonight it was me, tomorrow it could be someone else..."
Rick Carlisle described bluntly who exactly Jackson is:
"It's important that he is who he is in his soul, and that is an attacker."
The Indiana Pacers have found success in recent years in large part because of how they win around the margins. Quenton Jackson is an early candidate to be another one of those wins, and in the process, will save Pacers fans from a lot of the doom and gloom this season looked destined to provide.