After starting the 2021-22 NBA season with the Detroit Pistons, Josh Jackson was traded to the Sacramento Kings and entered the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Despite showing improvements on the floor over the years, Jackson remained unsigned until Wednesday when the Toronto Raptors announced that they had signed the former 4th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Jackson, 25, has truly never lived up to the hype of being a Top-4 draft pick, but he played well during his first two seasons in the league with the Phoenix Suns and has since proven his worth as a bench scorer with the Memphis Grizzlies (2019-20), Detroit Pistons (2020-22) and Sacramento Kings (2022).
Playing in a total of 51 games this past year, 39 with the Pistons and 12 with the Kings, Josh Jackson ended up averaging 6.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists and shot 40.0% from the floor. Three-point shooting has always been one of his weaknesses though, as Jackson shot just 25.4% from deep last season and he has shot 29.2% from three-point range for his career.
Seeing as they just signed second-round pick Christian Koloko to a guaranteed contract for the 2022-23 season, the Raptors now have 14 players with guaranteed contracts for the upcoming year, along with Justin Champagnie and Dalano Banton having partially-guaranteed contracts.
With Gabe Brown signing an Exhibit-10 training camp deal and both Jeff Dowtin and Ron Harper Jr. being signed to two-way contracts for the 2022-23 season, Josh Jackson takes the team’s 20th roster spot ahead of training camp and will be fighting with Banton and Champagnie for Toronto’s final roster spot in training camp.
Still being just 25-years-old and having the ability to impact the game on both ends because of his length and athletic abilities, Josh Jackson has a chance to earn an actual roster spot on the Toronto Raptors roster for the 2022-23 season.
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