2-Minute Drill: Josh Jackson is figuring out how to use speed to his advantage near the rim

Following a similar pattern to his rookie campaign, once the calendar flipped Josh Jackson’s performance saw an uptick. And in the month of February, where the Suns have played five games thus far, Jackson is averaging 22.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2 steals, and 0.8 blocks while shooting 50.6 percent from the floor.

The one area that Jackson has seen obvious improvements recently is picking his spots on the offensive end, as his true shooting percentage sits at 56.3. At the rim this month, Jackson is attempting 7.6 shots per game and converting a career-high 63.2 percent. When you attack the basket at that high of rate, it pays dividends at the free throw line as well where the 6’8” wing ranks right outside the top 30 for all players (32nd = 5.6 FTA in 35.5 minutes). Jackson barely trails Devin Booker in this metric, too, as the Suns’ star combo guard leads Phoenix with 5.7 trips to the charity stripe in his last three games since returning from right hamstring tightness.

The Suns’ No. 4 pick from the 2017 draft is starting to realize that with his blend of speed and athleticism he can beat most one-on-one matchups off the dribble with a head of steam and some creativity. We’ve seen it countless times over the past two weeks with various sequences against Utah, Atlanta, and Golden State.

Also, that extra attention Jackson now brings on drives to the basket opens up extra room for Deandre Ayton to be fed, and the former Kansas Jayhawk has continued to prove all season long he has some of the best passing chemistry with him.

Below, I quickly broke down in a new video series I’m debuting why you should be getting excited about this recent development out of Jackson. The 2-Minute Drill will be a series where I focus on various players within a concise 120 seconds or less each time with accompanying words, like you’re reading right now.

(Note: How I go about producing these videos could fluctuate based off the response. Just a heads up, this is my first time doing this myself so I’ll definitely get better over time, as you all know if you listen to Locked On Suns {if you’re not already, go subscribe to LOS on Apple Podcasts and leave us a 5-star review!}. Stay tuned for more original content coming my way on BSOTS and enjoy the video!)