Analyzing Jarrett Jack’s Effect On The Warriors

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The sneaky offseason acquisition of veteran PG Jarrett Jack has paid off. His consistency and leadership have been a huge part of Golden State’s surprising start. He has consistently stepped up and made baskets when the Warriors have need him most. When they are struggling he has been a calming influence with his veteran experience. He knows when to distribute and when he needs to attack and get his own. He has been a veteran leader in the locker room. All of this has some people talking about him as the Sixth Man of the Year.

To look at how much of an impact he makes on the Warriors I’ve put together this table. It shows the Warriors rank in Offensive, Defensive and Net Rating with Jack on and off the floor.

What he is doing is making an above average team a really good one by doing a number of things to make his impact.

The most important thing he’s doing is playing alongside Stephen Curry. On defense, Jack is big enough to take the opposing off guards, while on offense he runs the point, allowing Curry to work off the ball, which is a very comfortable position for him. Off the ball Curry can spot up (4th in the NBA) and come around screens. It also takes a lot of pressure of him to be handling the ball for all of his minutes on the floor. The trio of Jack, Curry, and Klay Thompson is especially deadly when Thompson and Curry run off symmetrical screens, allowing the bigs to slip and Jack handles it at the top (see Miami, game winning play).

Jack and Carl Landry have been the only offense on a sometimes stagnant bench unit. He is the only one that can create off the dribble for others and himself (ranked 11th and 19th in isolation and pick and roll ball handler situations, respectively). A lot of what he is doing is unsustainable, however.

Here is his shot distribution chart:

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Notice how much of his offense is coming from inefficient mid-range areas. Eventually, some of those pull up jumpers aren’t going to fall. He is also a career 35 percent shooter from three, but this season,he’s shooting 42 percent, which will likely see a regression sometime in the near future.

Outside of David Lee and Stephen Curry, Jack has probably been the biggest part of the Warriors’ success this season. If he can keep up what he has been doing so far, and if the Warriors make the playoffs, it will be hard to deny giving him the Sixth Man Of The Year award.