Brooklyn Nets 2015-16 Season Preview: Jarrett Jack

Name: Jarrett Jack

Height/weight (per Basketball-Reference.com): 6-3, 202 pounds

Career stats: 771 G, .443 FG%/.348 3FG%/.854 FT%, 11.0 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 4.4 APG, 107 offensive rating, 111 defensive rating

2014-15 stats: 80 G, 28.0 MPG, .439 FG%/.267 3FG%/.881 FT%, 12.0 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 4.7 APG, 101 o-rating, 109 d-rating

How he was acquired: Traded by the Cavaliers to the Nets on July 10th, 2014 in a three-team deal with the Celtics that sent Sergey Karasev to the Nets, Marcus Thornton and Tyler Zeller (plus draft picks) to the Celtics and a draft pick to the Cavaliers

2014-15 season recap: When the Nets picked up the veteran Jack in an offseason trade last summer, their plans were for him to strictly be Deron Williams’ backup and to have him play maybe 15-20 minutes a night, tops. Instead, thanks to Deron’s continued injury struggles and overall ineffectiveness, the 31-year-old ended up starting 27 games and actually played more minutes over the course of the season (2241 to 2114) than the former All-Star.

For the most part, Jack excelled in this role, and had a knack of making big shots and plays in the clutch. However, too often he turned into Michael Jordan–without the shot-making consistency–down the stretch in games as he hogged the ball and took too many low-percentage shots. With Jack, you get the good (the game-winners over the Warriors and Clippers) along with the bad, and the rest is just slightly above league average play. For the Nets, that was good enough as a backup at the 1.

Expected role: Now, though, Jack is the presumed starting point guard for the Nets with Deron Williams’ absence so it remains to be seen how he will fare playing 30+ minutes a night at the helm of the Brooklyn offense. Obviously, with the likes of Joe Johnson, Thaddeus Young, Bojan Bogdanovic and Brook Lopez joining him in the lineup, Jack won’t be expected or relied upon to do much scoring as his focus will need to be taking care of the ball and finding his open teammates.

The problem is, as the Nets saw in the 2014-15 season, that Jack tends to do too much on offense, which wouldn’t work if he were to play a distributor’s role. If he can buy in to that specific set of responsibilities, then maybe Brooklyn’s lack of true starting point guard won’t be as negative as previously not. Still, it’s hard to break a career of bad habits, so it remains to be seen how and if he’ll be able to adjust.

Best-case scenario: To be frank, though, the Nets’ situation at point guard is not ideal. There’s a reason Jarrett Jack has made a NBA career out of being a fringe bench player/start at point guard and not as a bonafide No. 1. So, the fact that Brooklyn is relying on him to be a consistent starter is troubling, but the Nets really don’t need that much production from him to help them get by due to the strength of the starting lineup across the board. He just needs to score 10 points a game and post 5-6 assists per contest for the team to be satisfied with him, which shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Worst-case scenario: Conversely, starting Jack every day could potentially develop into a disaster. His 2014-15 assist-to-turnover ratio of slightly less than two was his worst since the 2008-09 season, which highlights his propensity to make ill-advised decisions that lead to turnovers and opposition points. Also, his three-point shooting percentage of just over 25 percent from last year means defenses won’t feel the need to guard him at the top of the key, which would put more pressure on the other four players. Combine those two factors–along with his defensive deficiencies and shoddy shot selection at times–and the Nets could face issues at the point, and the reserves behind Jack aren’t the best of options either.

General thoughts: Under the radar, Jarrett Jack and how he plays will be incredibly influential in how the Nets’ season plays out. Out of all of the team’s key contributors–outside of rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson–he’s the most unknown, especially in terms of how he is going to handle being a starting point guard. Even on a frontcourt-based team like the Nets, the point guard is vital, so a lot will be riding on Jack as the season inches nearer.