Marvin Bagley And Jaren Jackson Are Ready To Be Part Of The NBA’s New Breed Of Big Men


Getty Image

BROOKLYN — Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marvin Bagley III are both smiling. It’s hard not to smile when you’re spending the day with a group of children that view you as superheroes. The pair, along with Shaquille O’Neal and fellow NBA Draft hopeful Mikal Bridges, surprised a group of kids from a local YMCA on Friday afternoon in Brooklyn. Deep inside the Barclays Center, the group of three future pros joined the former pro, all in their finest suits, to hang out with the young men on the Brooklyn Nets’ practice floor in an event put on by JCPenney.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a scenario where either Bagley or Jackson end up on this floor with any consistency, at least for now. Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick, of course, is in the possession of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even if the Nets held onto it, the selection is sitting at No. 8, and by the time Adam Silver would declare that they’re on the clock, both young big men will be well into making arrangements for what they’re going to do in their new cities.

This is an unfortunate turn of events for the Nets and the 27 other teams that won’t get the chance to acquire either player, because Bagley and Jackson are part of a new breed of big men eager to take over the NBA. While it’d be premature to say the days of players in the mold of Shaq — dump it down low, they pull off a few moves, manhandle you, and dunk on your head — are gone, big men are expected to be versatile now.

Want to protect the rim? Cool, you also need to be able to hold your own while switched onto a guard. More comfortable backing opponents down and turning to a jump hook? Too bad, you have to stand in the corner on this possession, and if the ball comes out to you, feel free to let it fly.

The good news is that Bagley and Jackson are players capable of doing these things in addition to the abilities anyone at the far right end of the height bell curve needs to be able to do if they play basketball professionally. The better news, the news that will likely lead to both of them being top-five picks on Thursday night, is that they’re both cut from the cloth that makes them prototypical big men in 2018.

Take Jackson for example. The big man from Michigan State made headlines earlier in the draft cycle when he spoke about his desire to model his game after Anthony Davis. As he told Dime, Jackson admires how Davis is a top-five player who will “take over the league,” plus physically, Jackson also hit a late growth spurt, just like Davis.

But beyond the Pelicans’ superstar big man, Jackson understands there are other elements to his game that he needs to work on to thrive. He’s a willing and capable shooter; Jackson hit 39.6 percent of his 96 attempts from three during his one year in East Lansing, plus he nearly connected on 80 percent of his free throw attempts, which is usually a pretty good indication that his shooting should translate to the league.

Getty Image

To continue to improve at that area, Jackson doesn’t look to Davis for inspiration. Instead, his focus is on modeling his jumper after two of the greatest shooters of all time.

“In terms of shooting I’ll probably watch Steph Curry or Klay Thompson, somebody like that,” Jackson says. “They’re high level shooters, and because that’s who you wanna model your game after. You wanna be the best, you gotta model your game, you gotta watch the best, you gotta play the best.”

Bagley isn’t quite the shooter that Jackson is, but he still doesn’t keep his focus on big men when it comes to modeling his game. His favorite players to watch are guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Davis. They’re all tall, but they all impact the game in different ways.

This is something important for Bagley, because in addition to their abilities, he’s a fan of how you can put them anywhere on the court and they’re still going to find a way to leave their mark on the game.

“I don’t like to be in position,” Bagley says. “I mean, whenever on the court. I’m a basketball player, whenever I get on it, I push it. So I just want to play the game and have fun while I’m doing it.”

Jackson and Bagley have gone up against one another, namely on the AAU circuit and once while in college (unfortunately for hoops fans, the Duke big man was poked in the eye and only played 10 minutes). The former Spartan sees the ability to do a whole lot of stuff in Bagley’s game, but is still wowed by one skill that has gotten Bagley showered with praise by basically everyone who analyzes the draft.

“He’s explosive,” Jackson says. “His second jump is ridiculous. He can really get up, he can catch a lot of lobs, but he also can the stretch the floor with his ball handling, and his shooting. I think his ceiling’s underrated, he can really hit a lot of shots from out there. He’s just an all-around great player, and that’s why he’s here.”

Getty Image

Bagley, meanwhile, praised Jackson’s physicality and effort, along with the fact that he believes Jackson is the caliber of player who draws the best out of his opponents, something Bagley knows first-hand from watching him play and their battles against one another.

Both players are understandably excited to get into the league, mostly because they want to test themselves against the best players on earth. Bagley, for instance, cannot wait to get switched onto guards on the perimeter, because to him, the most fun thing is to do is to battle against the best, no matter where they line up on the floor.

“Any chance I get to play against other big players is obviously going to be fun,” Bagley says. “So whatever player is on the other team we play that night, I’ll be excited to play against.”

Along those same lines, Jackson says “you kind of dream” of getting switched onto a player the caliber of Curry, as you’re faced with the challenge of reading his eyes, staying in front of him, and preventing him from hoisting up a shot that no one else on earth can make. This might not have been the type of thing that happened all that frequently as recently as a few years ago, but as basketball continues to change and evolve, so do the players that play the game.

The draft has some big men with more traditional skill sets. Deandre Ayton is a monster in the post who frequently gets compared to David Robinson, while Mo Bamba is a rim protector with a wingspan that was designed in a lab to make ESPN’s Jay Bilas have to fan himself on live television. But still, all of the bigs atop this draft have elements to their game that are necessary as the sport evolves, and both Bagley and Jackson are ready to show how they have developed more “unconventional” skills as part of a new generation of big men.

“I definitely want to change it around a little bit and not be one-dimensional,” Bagley says. “I want to be able to be versatile inside and out, be able to play the game from all positions, and have fun, so that’s what I plan to do.”

×