Andre Jackson Testing the NBA Draft Waters: ESPN

[Ratso]

emoni bates tho, he’s gonna be on a team fora long time.

 

[Umami Zen]

Reading tea leaves here.. If AJ is talking about leaving.. He's been getting enough positive vibes from NBA to suggest they'll roll with his athleticism/BBIQ/upside/defense/creativity/winning attitude/work ethic and overlook --in the short term--his offensive shot making deficiencies..

On the right team and with the right skill development staff.. He'll carve out a nice NBA career.. Go get it Andre..

BTW..Any Yarder who has been in a professional/managerial position to hire someone.. Andre has strong interviewing skills.. Promoting his brand.. A winner's attitude.

Edit: Part of the Combine experience when meeting with teams..

 

[Ratso]

emoni bates tho, he’s gonna be on a team fora long time.

i didn’t say start, but he can hit shots

 

[huskiesNhoos]

He was at 48/40/81 this year. To get to 14ppg he would need 2 more buckets per game. It really isn't that out of line. If you want me to be a little more realistic, I'll say 45/38/85... but that's silly to say instead of just using round numbers.

90% from the line is a tough ask. Hawkins was a freak shooter and hit 88%. I doubt Alex goes below 80%. He's a really, really good FT shooter.

I expect his FG% will drop because we should see him drive the ball more aggressively vs. tough defense.

There's been a total of 11 players in college to hit 50/40/90 in college since '93. I won't say its impossible...but it's certainly improbable. Would be a heck of an accomplishment

 

[How Sway?!]

We've had a couple of guys come close but nobody has done it yet, FT% seems to be the biggest culprit

View attachment 88318

I'm assuming that's CV's senior season at the bottom. Man such a shame that he came in during our worst years. Kid was AJ before AJ, just a hungry husky.

 

[Deleted at users request]

His stock is what it is. The development thing is just not correct.

I get the gist of NBA development > college development, but there’s a lot more shots to be had to actually work on his scoring here than at the NBA level where he won’t have the amount of control and green light as a young guy.

It’d pretty much be like when he played with Martin and RJ Cole for him. That’s my fear and don’t think his offense can get better that way. If he comes back, he’ll have full control of the team to work on whatever he needs and guys who will trust him.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I get the gist of NBA development > college development, but there’s a lot more shots to be had to actually work on his scoring here than at the NBA level where he won’t have the amount of control and green light as a young guy.

It’d pretty much be like when he played with Martin and RJ Cole for him. That’s my fear and don’t think his offense can get better that way. If he comes back, he’ll have full control of the team to work on whatever he needs and guys who will trust him.

I wasn't referring to games. I meant working with a professional coaching staff on a daily basis for an organization at least nominally invested in getting a return on their investment.

 

[navery12]

I'm assuming that's CV's senior season at the bottom. Man such a shame that he came in during our worst years. Kid was AJ before AJ, just a hungry husky.

Junior season, he shot 90% on FTs his senior year but was under 40% on FGs and 34.4% from 3

 

[Deleted at users request]

I wasn't referring to games. I meant working with a professional coaching staff on a daily basis for an organization at least nominally invested in getting a return on their investment.

That work isn’t going to mean much if he doesn’t get many game reps to work on it.

Even with Lonzo Ball, who’s kind of an okay comp for Andre, it took a lot of work and game reps to get the confidence to make his shot consistent. And a lot of patience because he’s the #2 pick and a PG who had the ball a lot. I’m not sure if Andre will have that kind of patience and investment to get the game reps he needs to be confident in his scoring.

We didn’t even see it here until the last stretch of the year. I would personally like to see him build on that for a year rather than going to the NBA without that confidence and foundation. But that doesn’t matter because he’s probably gone at this point.

FWIW Matisse Thybull played all 4 years and got drafted 1st round pick 20 and he doesn’t have the playmaking Andre has.

 

[navery12]

That work isn’t going to mean much if he doesn’t get many game reps to work on it.

Even with Lonzo Ball, who’s kind of an okay comp for Andre, it took a lot of work and game reps to get the confidence to make his shot consistent. And a lot of patience because he’s the #2 pick and a PG who had the ball a lot. I’m not sure if Andre will have that kind of patience and investment to get the game reps he needs to be confident in his scoring.

We didn’t even see it here until the last stretch of the year. I would personally like to see him build on that for a year rather than going to the NBA without that confidence and foundation. But that doesn’t matter because he’s probably gone at this point.

FWIW Matisse Thybull played all 4 years and got drafted 1st round pick 20 and he doesn’t have the playmaking Andre has.

It's time to let it go, Andre is gone. And he'll get significantly more game reps when he goes too, the G League season is 50 games. He'll have plenty of opportunities to get his shots up, and the development he needs is going to come from practice anyway

 

[superjohn]

That work isn’t going to mean much if he doesn’t get many game reps to work on it.

Even with Lonzo Ball, who’s kind of an okay comp for Andre, it took a lot of work and game reps to get the confidence to make his shot consistent. And a lot of patience because he’s the #2 pick and a PG who had the ball a lot. I’m not sure if Andre will have that kind of patience and investment to get the game reps he needs to be confident in his scoring.

We didn’t even see it here until the last stretch of the year. I would personally like to see him build on that for a year rather than going to the NBA without that confidence and foundation. But that doesn’t matter because he’s probably gone at this point.

FWIW Matisse Thybull played all 4 years and got drafted 1st round pick 20 and he doesn’t have the playmaking Andre has.

Lonzo Ball shot 41% on 5.5 three point attempts in his one season at UCLA. He made threes all the time off the bounce. Andre has a ton of trouble even creating a three and the midrange jumper isn't even a part of his offensive game. His scoring package is basically one hand floaters from outside the ft line and in.

 

[Deleted at users request]

It's time to let it go, Andre is gone. And he'll get significantly more game reps when he goes too, the G League season is 50 games. He'll have plenty of opportunities to get his shots up, and the development he needs is going to come from practice anyway

Yeah he’s gone. But the G League is filled with guys who are fighting to make the NBA and guys aren’t going to look to get him the ball. If he’s not aggressive, it’ll look like his sophomore season again. Getting better in practice is not a thing in basketball if it doesn’t come with game reps.

Andre is probably one of my favorite UConn players in awhile, just really worried about how ready he is currently.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

That work isn’t going to mean much if he doesn’t get many game reps to work on it.

Even with Lonzo Ball, who’s kind of an okay comp for Andre, it took a lot of work and game reps to get the confidence to make his shot consistent. And a lot of patience because he’s the #2 pick and a PG who had the ball a lot. I’m not sure if Andre will have that kind of patience and investment to get the game reps he needs to be confident in his scoring.

We didn’t even see it here until the last stretch of the year. I would personally like to see him build on that for a year rather than going to the NBA without that confidence and foundation. But that doesn’t matter because he’s probably gone at this point.

FWIW Matisse Thybull played all 4 years and got drafted 1st round pick 20 and he doesn’t have the playmaking Andre has.

I disagree with the notion that “game reps” are the key for Andre. He has a completely broken jump shot that needs to be rebuilt by professionals, not “game reps.”

And again, Lonzo is a bad comparison, because there is no good comparison. Lonzo has a funky looking jump shot but he shoots it a lot and always has. In his last year at Chino Hills he shot something like 36% from three on more than 200 attempts. (On an absolutely crazy high school team that murdered everyone - those kids would pull up from 30 feet.). That’s not comparable to what Andre’s up against.

 

[Deleted at users request]

I disagree with the notion that “game reps” are the key for Andre. He has a completely broken jump shot that needs to be rebuilt by professionals, not “game reps.”

And again, Lonzo is a bad comparison, because there is no good comparison. Lonzo has a funky looking jump shot but he shoots it a lot and always has. In his last year at Chino Hills he shot something like 36% from three on more than 200 attempts. (On an absolutely crazy high school team that murdered everyone - those kids would pull up from 30 feet.). That’s not comparable to what Andre’s up against.

We’re on the same page there with Lonzo. Think they’re feel for the game is similar though as far as being able to impact it without scoring. But scoring wise yeah, Andre is different than Lonzo because he actually has to develop an ability to score, not just become a more efficient one.

Even after being rebuilt he’s still going to need to work on it in game to become confident in it. Just wondering how that works out but maybe it does. And we’ll all be hoping it does.

 

[husky429]

I disagree with the notion that “game reps” are the key for Andre. He has a completely broken jump shot that needs to be rebuilt by professionals, not “game reps.”

And again, Lonzo is a bad comparison, because there is no good comparison. Lonzo has a funky looking jump shot but he shoots it a lot and always has. In his last year at Chino Hills he shot something like 36% from three on more than 200 attempts. (On an absolutely crazy high school team that murdered everyone - those kids would pull up from 30 feet.). That’s not comparable to what Andre’s up against.

He's had game reps for 3 years now with no discernable improvement in his scoring ability.

Rule #1 of learning to score is higher volume is only a good thing if you have a repeatable form with enough arc (Andre does not). Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad habits.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He's had game reps for 3 years now with no discernable improvement in his scoring ability.

Rule #1 of learning to score is higher volume is only a good thing if you have a repeatable form with enough arc (Andre does not). Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad habits.

If whoever drafts him thinks he needs game reps, he'll be in the G League. That's still better competition than college. But he will be a professional basketball player. It's his job. Not a student-athlete. 100% focused on it all the time. If he's going to improve, it's much more likely to happen in the NBA than at UConn.

 

[Palatine]

He's had game reps for 3 years now with no discernable improvement in his scoring ability.

Rule #1 of learning to score is higher volume is only a good thing if you have a repeatable form with enough arc (Andre does not). Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad habits.

Another, it's impossible for a player to improve post. These posts have proven to be incorrect time after time. Yet, they keep coming back year after year about player after player.

 

[Mandoo]

Smart kid. Think he needs another year to work on his shooting, do that and he makes more money in the long run.

True, but you gotta strike when the iron is hot. If chosen in first round, he's gotta go.

 

[husky429]

Another, it's impossible for a player to improve post. These posts have proven to be incorrect time after time. Yet, they keep coming back year after year about player after player.

Don't be an idiot. You're embarassing yourself more than usual.

I 100% believe that players can improve. Skill training was my job for 6 years.

When a player has been in a specific environment for 3 years with no discernable improvement in shooting (a skill he's been working on religiously), the obvious answer is you need to change the environment to have to have the best chance of changing the skill.

Maybe Andre is simply incapable of developing a shot. Maybe Hurley and Co. are terrible shooting coaches. We don't know. But Andre can't change who he is. The independent variable available now is to change his environment. Everything else has been tried.

Whether you like it or not, the reality is that college programs have limited resources for individual skill development. The coaches are working on everything from recruiting, scouting OOC opponents, to drawing up new plays for next season. An NBA team has dudes whose ONLY job it is to develop individual skill with no practice time restrictions or classes to get in the way.

 

[Palatine]

Don't be an idiot. You're embarassing yourself more than usual.

I 100% believe that players can improve. Skill training was my job for 6 years.

When a player has been in a specific environment for 3 years with no discernable improvement in shooting (a skill he's been working on religiously), the obvious answer is you need to change the environment to have to have the best chance of changing the skill.

Maybe Andre is simply incapable of developing a shot. Maybe Hurley and Co. are terrible shooting coaches. We don't know. But Andre can't change who he is. The independent variable available now is to change his environment. Everything else has been tried.

Whether you like it or not, the reality is that college programs have limited resources for individual skill development. The coaches are working on everything from recruiting, scouting OOC opponents, to drawing up new plays for next season. An NBA team has dudes whose ONLY job it is to develop individual skill with no practice time restrictions or classes to get in the way.

Excellent name calling. But your post was clear and you just doubled down on it.

 

[Deleted at users request]

He's had game reps for 3 years now with no discernable improvement in his scoring ability.

Rule #1 of learning to score is higher volume is only a good thing if you have a repeatable form with enough arc (Andre does not). Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad habits.

I know you’re not going to respond to this, but 2 of those years he had very little opportunity to score because he never was aggressive enough or trusted enough to do so by his teammates, reasonably.

This year was the first year he was legit able to fail until he got better and more confident and again, it wasn’t until the end of the year where he figured it out and became a legit scoring threat.

Again, my worry is that his time in the NBA is going to be spent like his first two years here not improving his offensive game because he’s just not aggressive enough. No one is going to put the team in his hands either like they would here as a late first, early 2nd rounder.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Excellent name calling. But your post was clear and you just doubled down on it.

but he's right...he's doubling down on being right

 

[Palatine]

but he's right...he's doubling down on being right

That players can never improve? That it's impossible for Andre to return to UConn and improve his scoring?

Wow, interesting take.

 

[auror]

On his pod, San Vecenie used Andre Jackson as an example of how NBA teams don't really use the combine for box score purposes, it's more about seeing how you fit in and play within a new framework.

He said he played fine, that his feel and awareness came through despite only scoring a couple points in both games. But the implication is only that he played fine, not great, because he didn't really show any new skills or attributes to NBA evaluators. More of the same which is good enough for borderline 1st/2nd.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

 

[jibsey]

Love this kid so much. All I care about is him making it in the NBA.

Selfishly I want to see the unbelievable things he can do out there for another season. You just know there 3-5 highlight level reels every game he's in, but financially I really want him to cash in. If he's not first round what is the NIL staying at Uconn income vs whatever league he ends up in?

 

[boog204]

Selfishly I want to see the unbelievable things he can do out there for another season. You just know there 3-5 highlight level reels every game he's in, but financially I really want him to cash in. If he's not first round what is the NIL staying at Uconn income vs whatever league he ends up in?

Me too because I just have a lot of doubts about him succeeding. If he's here, he'll be a 10-8-6 guy and go down as one of our most unique players ever (he already is, but another year...). The idea of him wallowing in the G-League on two-ways just kinda sucks.

People keep on saying with the NBA spacing he'll be a better scorer etc., but I actually think the opposite. The level of athleticism jumps enormously and a good pro would dare him to shoot at all times much like some of the teams did this year. As skilled as he is, he's entering a different universe of skill and expecting him to drive and dish effectively I think becomes quite diminished. So then what does he bring to the table offensively?

 

[husky429]

View attachment 88339

I mentioned this when discussing Bouk. One of the reasons why he's floundering in the league is the only way he knows how to play is as a primary-scoring top-dog. And there are only a handful of those guys on the planet.

A team can't have 13 Jayson Tatum's. They need a Grant Williams too, or the team just doesn't work. The barrier to entry in that role is much higher compared to a glue guy, 3&D, or connector. That's why I think Andre could make a splash in the league.

 

[Sole]

I think he would have shot better if he didn’t hurt his finger at the beginning of the year…he was a 34% 3 point shooter the year before.. and he worked on his shot during the off season…his shot was off because of his finger early and then lost confidence during the middle of the season…and improved at the end of the season

 

[boog204]

I think he would have shot better if he didn’t hurt his finger at the beginning of the year…he was a 34% 3 point shooter the year before.. and he worked on his shot during the off season…his shot was off because of his finger early and then lost confidence during the middle of the season…and improved at the end of the season

It did? He was 4/13 (30%) in the tourney and 8/31 (26%) after we got over our mid-season swoon. Teams dared him to shoot because he knew he couldn't and perhaps worse, he had very little confidence to do so.