{"id":98937,"date":"2024-10-02T01:09:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T05:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=98937"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:59:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:59:57","slug":"grizzlies-lose-core-player-jaren-jackson-jr-indefinite-period","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/02\/grizzlies-lose-core-player-jaren-jackson-jr-indefinite-period\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Lose Jaren Jackson Jr. For Indefinite Period"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies still haven\u2019t been able to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/04\/grizzlies-gg-jackson-unfortunate-injury-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">stave off the injury bug<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksgg01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GG Jackson II<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willivi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vince Williams Jr.<\/a> have already went down. Though they figure to be back before the All-Star Break, it\u2019s a big blow to their hopes of getting off to a good start. Both Jackson and Williams were potential starters, offering Memphis small forward options that raised their offensive ceiling.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smartma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Smart<\/a> started alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Desmond Bane<\/a> on the perimeter when he was healthy. However, he wasn\u2019t as efficient from beyond the arc as either Jackson or Williams, making it harder for him to mesh with Morant. The Grizzlies believe that Smart is a defensive tone-setter. Nonetheless, he\u2019s not as sensible a fit on offense as Jackson, Morant, Jaylen Wells, or John Konchar.<\/p>\n<p>Even Jake LaRavia could be a better choice for the first unit.<\/p>\n<h2>Grizzlies Lose Core Player Jaren Jackson Jr. For Indefinite Period<\/h2>\n<p>Now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> will be sidelined indefinitely, per ESPN insider Tim MacMahon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Grizzlies PF\/C Jaren Jackson Jr. experienced hamstring tightness during the first practice of camp. He will get imaging. \u201cWe\u2019re anticipating it might be a strain,\u201d coach Taylor Jenkins said. Timetable TBD.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn_macmahon\/status\/1841219934547853688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On the first day of training camp, Jackson Jr. suffered a hamstring injury, believed to be a strain. In a vacuum, this doesn\u2019t present much a need to be concerned, especially so early into training camp. Yet, the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year has missed at least 15 games in each of the past two seasons. Consequently, he\u2019s developing a reputation as an injury-prone player.<\/p>\n<p>In the immediate aftermath of Jackson Jr.\u2019s injury, it\u2019s actually LaRavia and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aldamsa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santi Aldama<\/a> who stand to gain the most. While more of a combo forward, LaRavia has defensive upside and can stretch the floor. The problem is that he isn\u2019t particularly efficient from beyond the arc, though Jackson Jr. isn\u2019t either, to be fair.<\/p>\n<p>However, Aldama made 36.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season. The Spaniard isn\u2019t a standout defender. Nonetheless, he does have potential as a rim-protector. So, so far as replacing Jackson Jr., he may have the best shot.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, with his injury timeline yet to be determined, Jackson Jr. could return before the regular season. Still, hamstring injuries are notoriously tricky, nagging players throughout a season. Los Angeles Lakers forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> and Indiana Pacers point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/halibty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> are recent examples of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies still haven\u2019t been able to stave off the injury bug. GG Jackson II and Vince Williams Jr. have already went down. Though they figure to be back before the All-Star Break, it\u2019s a big blow to their hopes of getting off to a good start. Both Jackson and Williams were potential starters, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":98940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62,3],"tags":[49497,1948,428,4745,49042],"class_list":["post-98937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-jake-laravia","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba-injuries","tag-santi-aldama"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}