The season is over, and it is time to start the season recaps. There will be a review for each player who finished the season with the Detroit Pistons.

(Follow along with all relevant stats on Basketball-Reference. Any stats not pulled from there will be otherwise stated.)

Stat-line: 14.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.2 turnovers. 42.6% from the field, 30.8% from deep, true shooting percentage of 51.6%.

Shot Chart

The Good

Reggie Jackson came out of the gates very strong this season after his disastrous season last year. He was playing smarter, more willing to pass, turning the ball over less, and also playing hard on defense more consistently than ever before in his career. He found the right balance of playing within the offense, most of the time, while still being able to play some hero-ball, running tons of pick-and-rolls when called upon to do so. Jackson was previously doing a mediocre impression of Russell Westbrook; he came out this season doing something closer to an impression of Mike Conley Jr, and a pretty good one at that.

Offensively, Jackson did have moments where he was overwhelmed and the lack of conditioning from the offseason, where he spent most of his time rehabbing his knee, was obvious. But his clutch play bailed out the Pistons on more than one occasion. In an outing against the Timberwolves, Jackson single-handedly brought the Pistons back to win by scoring or assisting on 19 straight points.

Jackson's work in the pick-and-roll was very important this season. His scoring efficiency dropped with a flurry of missed threes late in the season (more on that in a bit), but even accounting for his poor shooting once he came back from injury, Jackson was great out of the pick-and-roll. As a ball handler, he ranked in the 83rd percentile in the entire NBA on a really high volume. The Pistons motion offense got a lot of fanfare, especially early in the season, but its foundation remained Jackson and Drummond playing pick-and-roll. Losing that option sank the Pistons when Jackson was injured.

Jackson's performance on the defensive end was also encouraging (he was a disaster last season). Jackson has never been a focused or high-effort defender but his size and athleticism have made up for his shortcomings. He lacked some of that athleticism last year, which turned him into a total trash-fire on that side of the ball. This season, however, he came in playing harder and paying closer attention than ever before to defense and it showed, especially as his conditioning started to catch up. He doesn't have the speed to ever be a really good defender, but he has shown that he is capable of being a near plus on defense night in and night out, while still being able to really lock in and become quite good in crunch time.

In the end, the best news is that Jackson seems to have learned a valuable lesson from last year. In the past, he has relied too heavily on his natural abilities and not paid enough attention to the craft of playing point guard on both ends; this season he came back with an extra focus on doing just that. His vast arsenal of floaters and runners improved from being really good to being, quite possibly, the best in the NBA. Additionally, his patience with the ball increased, he fought through screens on defense, and he became more mature.

Only time will tell what Jackson can do with a proper offseason and healthy season, depending on how much of his explosiveness and conditioning he is able to reclaim. But Reggie Jackson is a smarter and more complete basketball player than he was before. 

The Bad

Two-fold here. First off, when he returned from his ankle injury this season, he was not especially good. He wasn't bad, which was evidenced by the fact that the Pistons won a lot of games (even if it was against weak competition), but in the 12 games he played down the stretch he shot just 22% from deep and 38% overall, which torpedoed his numbers from earlier in the season. This is not a huge concern -- missing a ton of time with a bad ankle injury can have that impact on someone's game -- but his final numbers are still worth noting. He will have to come back next year and prove that it was an anomaly and that he is at least a league average three-point shooter.

Even if we assume that the poor shooting was a result of having just come back from injury, there are still some other concerns. Even before the injury, although he was playing well, Jackson had not been his old, explosive self. Once again, perhaps a proper offseason where he is able to do normal conditioning and not rehab a bum knee will help, but it is possible that we won't get to see a true peak form of Jackson. Many hoped Jackson would be able to combine his mental growth with an injury-free season in his attempt to re-establish himself as the explosive scorer he was two years ago. However, after having another season derailed by injury, it isn't clear if that will ever happen.

Jackson got to the rim less often than ever before in his career -- and that by a wide margin, even if he was pretty effective once he got there. But he was absolutely killer in those in-between areas from 3-10 feet, where he shot 43.4%, and from 10-16, where he shot 51.5%, both really good marks. Still, it is hard to be a high-level scorer without taking more shots at the rim, where he took just 15.8% of his shots.

Finally, Jackson simply got injured again, and that ruined the Pistons season. This wasn't his fault, of course -- it was a freak injury where he landed awkwardly; it could happen to anyone. If it had been his knees again, then we would be having a different discussion about whether or not Jackson can ever be trusted. Even if these injuries are totally random, having two straight seasons sunk by injuries is worrisome. 

Biggest Question?

Two things. First off, can he stay healthy over a full season? I touched on this just above, but even if it is a freak injury, it is still a worry going forward. The bigger question though is whether or not he can recapture his former explosiveness, combine it with his better mental game, and become a truly elite point guard. A full offseason of doing actual basketball activities should help, but we will not know until we see it. The Pistons are likely going to have a great deal riding on his ability to come back strong next season.

Biggest Answer

He is capable of adjusting his game. After last season there was some concern that Jackson would just be a terrible chucker forever, that his stubbornness would not allow him to take fewer or better shots and adjust to a diminished physical ability. This year, Jackson proved that he is able to make that adjustment and continue to be a valuable player on both ends of the floor even if he never recaptures his past bounce.

The Verdict

I'm inclined to not be too worried about his shooting at the end of the season. As such, this was a good, but somewhat, sad season for Jackson. Before getting hurt he was playing great basketball and proving a lot of doubters wrong. It was very fun to see. He also was starting to get his conditioning under him when the injury happened. After the injury, the Pistons season went downhill fast and never recovered. Looking into the numbers more suggests that the Pistons would've slipped a bit even with Jackson around. His absence merely compounded the problems rather than causing all of them, but the "what if" will always be there for this season. Regardless, it was a good bounce-back year for Jackson, even if the final stat-line doesn't really show it.

Looking forward

Jackson has two more years and about $25 million left on his contract. A lot will be in flux this offseason, but I would guess that if the Pistons decided to move him, they could find someone who would bite. But his value would be pretty low. If the Pistons got little in return, they really have no other means to get a different starting point guard. As such, I would guess that Jackson is still on the team next year, barring a total teardown. As much as I love Jackson, the Pistons could potentially upgrade at the position if the right deal came along, so I wouldn't be shocked if he was moved. I would still bet on him being around though.

What do you think? Did his poor shooting down the stretch mean anything or was it just rust? Can he regain his explosiveness?