jjack to start against raptors

[myrondizzo]

Jim Jackson to Start Against Raptors
Posted: Nov. 21, 2005

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J-Jax will get his first start on Tuesday night against Toronto.
(Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE Photos) One of the biggest lessons Jim Jackson has learned in his 13-year NBA career is to always be ready for anything and he is hoping that philosophy pays off Tuesday night when Phoenix hosts the 1-9 Toronto Raptors at America West Arena (7 p.m. FSN AZ). Head Coach Mike D'Antoni will insert Jackson into the starting lineup in place of injured guard Leandro Barbosa. The Suns' swingman has dealt with inconsistent, and at times non-existent, playing time this season after coming to Phoenix in the middle of last season.

Barbosa suffered a Grade 2 sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his left knee at the end of the first half in Saturday’s game at San Antonio and is expected to be out two to three weeks.

Jackson, meanwhile, has averaged 3.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in seven games this season, and registered two DNP-CDs (Did not play-coach's decision).

"Jimmy Jackson will come in, he’ll do a great job," D'Antoni said after Monday's practice.

 

[devilfan02]

I like this alot. We need Jackson now and if we give him some minutes he might be more consistent. Hopefully he can get mor comfortable and produce.

 

[myrondizzo]

hopefully he can get his shot going and help nash's +/- numbers. hopefully starting will give him some confidence.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I like this alot. We need Jackson now and if we give him some minutes he might be more consistent. Hopefully he can get mor comfortable and produce.

Agreed. I was dumbfounded as to why he wasn't playing. I think he's a major piece to our plan.

 

[devilalum]

Is this going to be the Suns diversion tactic for the year.


Instead of talking about the fact that we just lost a game and one of our best players for three weeks lets change the starting lineup again and make a big press release about it.

The Suns have Nash and Marion as sure starters and about 7 more guys that are all possible starters. Why is this a big deal?

Cotton used to juggle the lineup all the time and the team would announce it just before tip off.

 

[myrondizzo]

with barbosa out they have to start someone in his place. i thought it was odd since jjax wasnt playing much off the bench.

 

[keric]

Possible trade

First let me say this is good news. JJackson should be getting the PT. Often wondered why he wasn't playing as much. Knew Dantoni wanted to "see" exactly what we had in the new players but c'mon.

ALSO

Jim Jackson "might" be starting and receiving more playing time simply because he might be traded. Often interested teams would like to see exactly how a player is performing before they actually pull the trigger, kind of like a test-drive or an interview. Giving minutes to JJ might be exactly what is going on behing the scenes. (Reminds me of last year when Casey Jacobson all of a sudden started to receive extended minutes off the bench, I was like WTF, a few games later and he was gone)

 

[elindholm]

Jim Jackson "might" be starting and receiving more playing time simply because he might be traded.

Yep, I was thinking that too. What a bizarre first month of the season this has been.

 

[playstation]

Jim Jackson "might" be starting and receiving more playing time simply because he might be traded.

Yep, I was thinking that too. What a bizarre first month of the season this has been.

exactly. that's why the suns asked ginobili to fall into barbosa, so when jjax was made a starter, casual fans wouldn't ask any questions...

 

[cly2tw]

Actually, the logic behind not playing Jim then and starting him now that LB is out is the same sound one.

With Amare out indefinitely, we are wise to give the youngsters like Diaw, LB and Jones every chance possible to prove themselves in game situations. In case, Amare rejoins the team already in this season for a post-season run, we'd have deeper bench with "more proven" reserves on it. Jim is a vet that will be OK as long as he gets playing time. He will be among the accountable reserves no matter what. Luckily, Diaw and LB both reponded big time to the given playing time, which logically led to benching Jim then who needed more warm-up time in general to be effective not to mention playing with a bunch of new faces all of a sudden.

Now that LB is out, we need the steady and calming presence of Jim to keep us up with the competition. By starting him, he gets plenty time to become effective again. Actually, in the last two games, he was quite smooth as he used to be and shot the ball well. With Diaw coming off the bench, we should always have two of Nash, Diaw and JimJ on the court for primary ball handling, a task that House and Bell can't reliably be burdened with.

I really hope that we run some screens for Nash without the ball like Utah did with Stockton, so that he can conserve his energy better without dribbling too much while establishing himself as a serious threat at catch-and-shoot. Diaw and JimJ are savvy and steady enough to make that pass when he gets himself free.