Los Angeles Clippers: The impact of Reggie Jackson

The Los Angeles Clippers made yet another addition to the roster by signing recently bought out Detroit Piston, Reggie Jackson.

If the Los Angeles Clippers didn’t convince everyone that they were the deepest team in the league yet then they should have on Tuesday, when it was announced that the team would be signing recently bought out point guard, Reggie Jackson (via Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN).

This comes after the Clippers added forward Marcus Morris at the trade deadline. And while Morris has not been as good in LA as he was in New York, this double addition of Morris and Jackson proves what we already knew: the Los Angeles Clippers are going all in.

But what exactly will Jackson bring to the Los Angeles Clippers? Like Morris, his role in LA is going to be much different than it was in Detroit. His numbers will undoubtedly take a hit as a result, but the numbers are not what the Clippers are concerned about.

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There is a case to be made that some fans are overvaluing the addition of Jackson as well. While the Clippers added a great second playmaker, Jackson is not a massive-difference maker that will make or break a title team. However, when he is your eighth or ninth-best player, then you have something special.

The biggest impact of Jackson is it gives the Clippers a playmaker in the second unit that can run the offense and distribute the basketball, which is exactly what the team needed. Jackson’s shooting metrics are down this season and on the Clippers he should be taking way fewer shots, so his own points per game are probably going to dip dramatically.

However, if Jackson can buy into him being the captain of the second unit then he can see a lot of success. He is going to be surrounded by shooters, especially Landry Shamet, who is going to get to play more off-ball than he was previously.

As good as Shamet has been for the Clippers and as good of a sneaky pick-up as he was, he is not someone who can be trusted to run backup point in a playoff series. He is a lethal shooter and can create some looks for others, but is not the natural point guard playmaker that Jackson is.

It will be interesting to see how Doc Rivers divides up the minutes once the playoffs around if the team is completely healthy. The rotations shrink in the playoffs and with Patrick Beverley and Paul George in the fold there will be fewer minutes for Shamet and Jackson, so in a sense, the final 27 games are going to serve as his playoff audition.

Even if Jackson ends up having a minimal role in the playoffs this acquisition also serves another huge purpose for the Los Angeles Clippers: it kept Jackson from signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

As petty as it sounds, it is much better to have Jackson on the bench and hardly playing, if that is the case, on your own team rather than him sign with your biggest competition, who you will have to beat to get to the NBA Finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers could desperately use a second playmaker and ballhandler and someone such as Jackson would have been perfect for the Lakers’ bench unit. The Clippers kept that from happening.

Next. Clippers biggest concerns during path to Finals. dark

So even if Reggie Jackson falls short of your expectations on the Los Angeles Clippers, just know that he is still doing a great service to the team by simply being a Clipper and not being a Laker.

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