It's tough to find good highlights of him in the D-League - he's number 11 in white here.
Cedric Jackson will be called-up to the San Antonio Spurs according to a tweet from Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski (I spelled that without looking). Jackson was averaging 15.8 points, 7.4 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals while shooting 41% from the field for the D-League's Erie BayHawks.
Jackson has previously played out two 10 day contracts with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but I was kind of under the impression that call-up was because he played for the Cavs D-League affiliate and therefore was familiar with their system. Obviously, that's not the case with the Spurs, however (Austin's Curtis Jerrells would have been the equivalent), so let's delve into this call-up in-depth.
First, I'll give you a primer with my thoughts on him right before the Cavaliers called him up:
Cedric Jackson (Erie BayHawks, 16.5 ppg, 8.2 apg, 4.7 rpg (as a starter), 40% FG, 30% 3pt) - Jackson's the best defensive player on this list not named Jefferson. The Cleveland State alum was actually the Horizon League defensive player of the year last season. With the Cavs D-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, he's recently earned himself his spot in the rotation as a full-time starter - Since January 6th, the 10-13 BayHawks have won six of their past eight games, all Jackson starts. Jackson doesn't really have a jump shot (the numbers aren't lying), but he does very well at working off the pick-and-roll and getting to the bucket, either finishing below the rim or getting to the free-throw line. The Cavs' brass should be very familiar with him as he played right underneath their nose at Cleveland State and is now playing for their affiliate in Erie. While this is probably a long shot, I'd welcome this call-up because, if nothing else, it'd be a nice way to reward the rookie's solid play with a 10-day contract and see how he does on the big stage. He's also a pure point in the same way Mo Williams is a pure point, if you catch my drift.
Now, let's dig a bit deeper!
Offensively, he's a drive and kick point guard - even though he still settles too often for jump shots. Ideally, every time up the court he'd get a pick at the top, drive to the bucket and then look to kick it out or finish at the rim because that's what he's best at. In his last two games (since the BayHawks acquired former Spur Blake Ahearn), he's been playing very well simply because that's the gameplan - the floor is spread out with Ahearn and Mike Gansey on the wings so he's free to either get to the bucket or kick it out to either wing for the 3-pointer - and it works great. If he's counted on to do anything other than that, though, this probably wasn't the best choice for a call-up.
Defensively, as you'd probably assume, is where he's best. I'm told that, according to Synergy, he ranks as the top defensive point guard in the D-League - obviously why he's the Spurs choice as a call-up. He's not very big (6'3", 190) but he is very athletic and plays the passing lanes quite well - he has great instincts.
Overall, I like this call-up, as once again it shows the D-League isn't consistently just looking for the player with the best numbers - it'd be easy to look at his stats and assume he's not worthy of a call-up. Either way, I think I might have gone with either Mustafa Shakur or Trey Johnson for this call-up. With Tony Parker out six weeks, though, I assume that this could be a rotating door, maybe even giving Jerrells a chance if the Spurs aren't excited with Jackson after the first 10 days.
For more on Jackson to the Spurs, check Matt Hubert's breakdown.
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