In a season that has been largely disappointing for the Indiana Pacers, it has been an absolute joy and a pleasure to watch Quenton Jackson bring effort, passion, and non-stop fearlessness to the court every time he gets the chance to play.
Despite spending most of last year as a G League player, Jackson has taken a massive step forward in his development this year. In the absence of both TJ McConnell and Tyrese Haliburton, Jackson was raised up in the rotation due to the lack of guard depth.
However, while he may have gotten his opportunity due to absences, he has proven that he must be prioritized even as both those players come back. Look no further than #29 as the future successor to McConnell as the sixth man going forward for the Indiana Pacers.
On a night in which most people didn't think the Pacers could beat the New York Knicks, it was Jackson's play, not as a scorer or as a playmaker, but as a defender, that pushed Indiana over the edge to beat New York by two points.
This continues the wonderful trend of Jackson rapidly becoming a rotation-level player that the Pacers so badly needed.
Quenton Jackson and the attitude that comes from surviving the G League
So many people think of the G League as the NBA's minor league. While it could be described that way, it goes so much further than that. In baseball, everyone plays with little rest due to the extremely long and grueling schedule. In the G League, however, games come fast and often, and with opportunities in such high demand and low supply, players will often play two or three games in as many days.
We've seen that the Pacers have taken a much deeper look at the type of player and, specifically, the type of mindset needed to survive this grind.
Jackson is the first of these experiments to be paying off. Jalen Slawson is still waiting in the wings (and had a fantastic dunk on Friday night against the Knicks), but he has the same mindset of wanting to win so bad and wanting to be a part of all things team basketball to do so.
Quenton has shown that he can do a little bit of everything, but that he hangs his hat on his defense and connective play within the limits of the Pacers' system.
Against the Knicks, Jackson scored only three points, but was a +33 on the night. Just a few games before that, he had 29 points on 9/13 shooting against the Miami Heat.
This is a guy who just keeps getting better and better, and it's finally time for Indiana to start viewing him as a huge part of their future going forward.
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