Hall of Famers, All-Stars, All-NBA players, those are the players that are talked about all over the world from playgrounds to newsrooms to stadiums. Since the stars take all of the limelight there are a lot of really good hoopers that can play 15 years in the league, win championships, make big plays and they will still barely get a mention in the media.
That is why we are back with our second edition of the underrated role player files where today we are going to highlight long time journeyman in the NBA Jarrett Jack. Jarrett Jack was not given a lot of opportunity in his NBA career to win. He played a lot of minutes and was always in a rotation, but always on a middle of the pack team or a bottom tier team.
That never mattered to Jack though, obviously he is a competitor and he wanted to win, but it never stopped him from playing his heart out and making plays on the court. Jack played an impressive 13 seasons in the NBA, and a 6’3 point guard does not just play 13 years by accident.
Jack was a quick, crafty and high IQ guard that was an elite playmaker, an outstanding mid range shooter and a great finisher that could shoot the three too. Jack was known for his flashy passes, his ability to run an offense and his tough shot making from the mid range.
Jack has career averages 10.8 points per game, 4.6 assists, and 2.9 rebounds per game on 44/34.3/85.5 shooting splits and he was a career 42.8% mid range shooter. To maintain these steady stats over the course of 13 seasons is extremely underrated. Jack, who is not thought of as a scorer, had averaged over 10 points per game in 8 of the 13 seasons he played, and it did not take him long to get acclimated to the league.
In 2005 Jack was the 22nd pick in the NBA draft out of Georgia Tech, he got drafted by the Denver Nuggets, but was traded on draft day to Portland Trailblazers where Jack played the first three seasons of his career. Jack’s rookie year was solid but nothing special until the last month of his rookie year.
Jack averaged 6.7 points per game, 2.3 assists, and 2 rebounds per game his rookie year, the last month he averaged 11.9 points per game, 5.3 assists, and 2.5 assists per game. The Blazers finished that year 21-61, they left that year knowing that there was promise from the first round guard they traded for-
Jack started off his sophomore year where he left off in his rookie season and he had a really good second season. He started 79 games for the Blazers in just his second year, and he averaged 12 points per game, 5.3 assists per game, 2.6 rebounds per game, and 1.1 steals per game.
He really showed out in his second season. Jack recorded his first thirty point game, his first double double, his first 20-10 game, and his first 30-10 game. He ended that season with 4 double doubles, a three point percentage that went up almost 10%, and also improvements in field goal and free throw percentage. The Blazers would go on to miss the playoffs again but they had found their point guard of the future.
Well at least that is what most people had thought, but they were surely mistaken. Portland would go on and sign a 27 year old Steve Blake and ultimately hand the starting job to him. That following season Blake started 78 games, while Jack spent most of his season coming off the bench and he only started 16. Although disappointing Jack did not let this get to his head, he still had a really solid season. 9.9 points per game, 3.8 assists, and 2.9 rebounds per game on 43.1/34.2/86.7 shooting split and he finished 14th in 6th man of the year voting. Fourteenth might sound low but this was a year where Manu Ginóbili, Leandro Barbosa, Jason Terry, and more were all in the race.
They ended the season 41-41 but still missed the playoffs. Shortly after the draft Portland would trade Jack for the 11th overall pick that year Jerryd Bayless (who might also get a page in this series). Jack would go to the Indiana Pacers where he would spend a lot of his career (he spent one season there).
In his lone season with the Pacers he played all 82 games and started 52 of them and he played exceptional as well. He averaged 13.1 points per game, 4.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on great efficiency again. Then another losing season leads to Jack leaving in free agency and going to the Toronto Raptors on a $4.5 million deal, a criminally low deal for the production he was putting up.
He spent about a year and a half in Toronto where he averaged 11.3 points per game, 5 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game.In that time he had 6 games of twenty plus points, 2 double doubles, a game with 0 points and 10 assists, and he shot 38.6% from three in his time there.
During his second season with the team he would somehow get traded once again for Jerryd Bayless, only this time he landed himself in New Orleans, where he would have some of the best experiences in his career. That first season in New Orleans he got to go to the playoffs for the first time in his career.
Jack had a phenomenal game, one where he had 15 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 0 turnovers, on 5-6 shooting in a win vs the Lakers. After that game he shot 7-28 with 8 assists and 8 turnovers as they would go on to lose 4-2 in the first round. Bittersweet, exited after losing his first playoff series, but he came back next year with a vengeance.
In the 2011-2012 season Jack had the best year of his career. He averaged career highs with 15.6 points per game, 6.3 assists per game, and 3.9 rebounds per game on very efficient shooting numbers. In that season he had 12 games with over twenty points including a 30 point game, he had 5 double doubles, and he had his first career triple double in a game where he had 17 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds against the Warriors.
The Hornets would miss the playoffs that season, but after the best year of his career Jack knew he had found a home. That was until about a month after the season when he was a part of a 3 team trade that sent him to the Golden State Warriors. He had another really solid season where he averaged 12.9 points per game, 5.6 assist per game, and 3.1 rebound per game, and yes I am pretty sure I do not have to keep saying that he was always very efficient.
In this season he would have nine 20+ point games, 5 double doubles and another 30-10 game. Jack even finished 3rd in 6th Man of the Year voting, finishing just behind J.R. Smith and Jamal Crawford. Although he was disappointed he did not win the award, there was something to cheer him up, he got to return to the playoffs. This time he was not messing around either.
Jack played in 12 playoff games before the young Warriors lost 4-2 in the second round against the Spurs. In these 12 playoff games Jack averaged 17 points per game, 4.7 assists per game and 4.5 rebounds per game. In 6 of the 12 games he had 20 + points and he even had a double double in their first playoff game that season.
He then signed a $6.3 million dollar deal with the Cavs in the offseason, but had kind of a down season for his standards. In the offseason after that he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets where he would have a bit of a resurgence. In his two seasons with the Nets he averaged 12.2 points per game, 5.4 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and 1 steal per game.
In that time he recorded seventeen 20+ point games, and 11 double doubles including a game where he had a career high 35 points along with 13 assists, and another game where he had a career high 14 assists. He also hit both of his career game winners (or at least this Yak could only find two) while being on the Nets.
In his first season with the Nets he would go to his final playoff appearance where the Nets would lose 4-2 in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks but Jack played exceptionally well again.
In his final playoff series, he averaged 12.3 points per game, 4.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds per game, and just over 1 steal per game. Jack would then make a stop back in New Orleans and then finish his career with the New York Knicks before retiring after the 2017-2018 season.
Although Jack was never an MVP, a champion or even an All-Star, he still was an amazingly talented basketball player that had a lot of great moments in the NBA and he was a key piece of a lot of competitive teams. Jarrett Jack is one of the point guards that we often forget about his notable stats but he was a problem back when he played.
Jack is top 130 all time in assists, Top 60 in free throw percentage and 170 in assists per game. He played 82 or more games in a season 4 times, and he was a great leader and locker room guy. Jack’s hard work and devotion to 13 NBA seasons should not be forgotten. Jarrett Jack always has a place in the Yak Hall of Fame.
ONWARD!
TRU-YAK
