After stamping the validity of his name within NBA circles throughout his NBA career, Trayce Jackson-Davis more than kept the promise he made to his doubters after slipping to the very backend of the 2023 NBA draft.
Y’all will regret it… I promise you.
— TJD (@TrayceJackson) June 23, 2023
Much to the chagrin of the countless general managers who swiped left on TJD last summer, the slept-on southpaw finished a single vote shy of an NBA All-Rookie Team. And with all due respect to the solid output strung together by Oklahoma City's rookie guard Cason Wallace throughout the 2023-2024 season, it would be fair to say that Jackson-Davis was robbed of an honor that he rightfully earned.
In his 68 games played as an NBA freshman (including 16 starts), TJD strung together impressive averages of 16.6 MPG, 7.9 PPG (17.1 per-36 minutes), 5.0 RPG (10.8 per-36 minutes), 1.2 APG (compared to 0.7 TOPG), 1.1 BPG and 0.4 SPG on an uber-efficient 70.2% FG from the floor. It became abundantly clear as the season progressed that he was a better frontcourt option for this team than lowkey iconic Warrior Kevon Looney, it just took some time for that epiphany to spring to the mind of Dubs's head coach Steve Kerr.
Even if Kerr's weariness lingered over into the offseason, Golden State's skipper was given even more opportunity to come to this realization during Team USA's recent training camp for the summer Olympics. In a bit of a surprising move, USA basketball extended an invitation for Jackson-Davis to participate on the USA's select team. The former Hoosier made the most of his opportunity, and clearly made quite a lasting impression on his patriotic peers.
With that experience now in the rearview mirror, the young big man's sights should be firmly fixated on properly preparing for his second season in the association. While the Warriors may have lost one of the franchise's most historic players in Klay Thompson, GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. and his friends within the front office did an admirable job of re-tooling this renovated roster. While this should now be a much deeper team, they are still lacking any guaranteed rotation regulars in the frontcourt outside of Draymond Green.
Looney and TJD's fellow NBA sophomore Gui Santos are realistically the only other big fellas on guaranteed deals, and neither of them provides the same type of dynamism which Trayce brings to the table.
Looney suited up in 74 games last season (36 starts), putting up minuscule 4.5 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.8 APG (compared to 0.7 TOPG), 0.4 BPG and 0.4 SPG in 16.1 MPG on 59.7% shooting from the floor. Santos on the other hand saw the court in just 23 games, totaling 3.6 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.6 APG (compared to 0.3 TOPG), 0.2 BPG and 0.1 SPG in 8.3 MPG on 50.9% from the field. If you are just looking at the numbers, it is obvious who the most viable option is of the trio of talented big men.
But TJD's impact on the court stretches far beyond the box score, and can at times go unnoticed when he is not putting the ball in the basket. He darts up and down the court like a gazelle, sets blistering screens consistently, and plays a much bigger brand of basketball than his 6'9", 245 pound frame implies. As his acclimation to the professional game continues to expand, he should grow more and more comfortable expanding his skillset while progressively boosting his confidence to call his own number.
So how high can Jackson-Davis raise his level of play as an NBA sophomore?
There are a number of guys who will slot above TJD on the overall scoring hierarchy for this team. Stephen Curry, Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, Andrew Wiggins, DeAnthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski will all hold higher priority in terms of finding shots, with Draymond Green, Kyle Anderson, Moses Moody and Gary Payton II all shortly behind him in the race to scoring opportunities. However, none of those guys offer the type of low-post scoring/playmaking abilities as Mike Woodson's finest.
Even if he does not begin the season as the starting center of the Golden State Warriors (as he should), it should not take many games for that promotion to come to fruition. Regardless of whether he starts or comes off the pine, Trayce Jackson-Davis will undoubtedly see an uptick in minutes during the 2024-2025 season. And after seeing the type of production he strung together in limited minutes last season on an extremely tight leash, there is no telling the things that he can do once he is inevitably given the green light.
Keep going, TJD!