Chris Gardner/ Getty ImagesThe Denver Nuggets picked up Reggie Jackson as a seemingly late-season addition ahead of the playoffs, but he is reportedly staying put beyond the one championship push.
Denver and the guard agreed to a new two-year, $10.25 million deal with a player option for the second season on Friday, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
Jackson started the 2022-23 campaign with the Los Angeles Clippers, but they dealt him to the Charlotte Hornets for Mason Plumlee. He never played for the Hornets before completing a contract buyout, which freed him to sign with a contender in Denver.
There was no need for a rebuilding Hornets team to play the veteran as they looked ahead to the draft and adding young assets to help turn things around in the future, and signing with the Nuggets—which finished as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference—gave the 33-year-old the opportunity to pursue the first championship in his career.
He has been something of a journeyman since he entered the league in 2011 as a first-round pick, having played for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Detroit Pistons, Clippers and Nuggets.
Jackson has been a high-volume scorer at times and averaged as many as 18.8 points per game when he was with the Pistons in 2015-16. This past season was his 10th consecutive one in which he averaged double figures, as he finished with 10.2 points, 3.4 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game across his time on the Clippers and Nuggets.
Yet playing for a championship contender in Denver meant a smaller role in the offense, and the Boston College product averaged 7.9 points in 16 regular-season games before he became a non-factor in the playoffs.
To his credit, Jackson seemed more willing to adjust his game to Jamal Murray in the backcourt than perhaps Bones Hyland was in an up-and-down fit, and he told reporters as much after joining the team.
"It's really whatever he needs," Jackson said of Murray. "He's such a great player. Whatever he needs to alleviate … whether he needs me to guard, you know he can score with the best of them. If he takes away the pressure and needs me to score and make plays on the back side, I'll be ready. Ever since I came in the league, I've played beside great guards."
That fit helped the Nuggets win the championship, even though Jackson didn't see much of the court while averaging 3.0 minutes per game in the postseason.
Attention now turns toward the future, and Jackson will look to improve with some additional continuity on the team.
While he is 33 and shot just 33.3 percent from deep this past season, his three-point percentage was a blistering 43.3 as recently as 2020-21. There is no reason to expect anything but a shooting bounce-back as he grows more accustomed to taking advantage of the spacing around Murray and Nikola Jokić, and he was comfortable taking a secondary role during the stretch run.
All that should help Jackson establish himself as a contributor in Denver even if he is in the back half of his career.
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