After reading Duke’s recent analysis, there are three things we can tell about Jamorko Pickett based on his four-year college career. One, he’s a good three-point shooter who has the size, length and mechanics that can make him a deadly threat from the perimeter. Two, he’s awful inside the arc, but some of this could be attributed to him being played out of position in college. Three, he doesn’t project to be much of a defender.
In some of my pieces from last season, I detailed how Dwane Casey’s system seems to keep helping various players get better. That combined with the natural progression of some players, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we have some signs of improvement to report about Jamorko after just one Summer League.
In the triples department, he not only showed that he can make it from NBA distance, he can do so efficiently.
He made 9 out of 18 shots from distance during Summer League. As we can see, he’s quite a versatile three-point marksman. He can make catch-and-shoot treys and he can sink them off the bounce. Although there weren’t any clean off-movement attempts from Pickett, he made a couple while being active on the perimeter and while filling the corners in transition. So movement shooting in some capacity is definitely known to him and he should be able to develop it further.
Inside the three-point line, the young forward apparently is finding his way as well due to being put in optimal situation on his two-point attempts.
First, we see him making an easy put-back jam from the weak side where he’s completely unguarded by a defense being overwhelmed by all the talent Detroit employed on the strong-side. Then, we can observe him getting a bunny in transition. Next, he makes a curl drive off of a handoff while being faced with smaller defender as a result of being putted in a lineup with other big players that occupy any bigger defender the opponents have (those long strides he employs going to the hoop look familiar, aren’t they?).
What also helps Jamorko score here is great spacing provided by his teammates. There is also this nice cut that benefits from scrambled defense caused by Pistons motion offense. All in, Jamorko shot 60% on twos in Summer League. Compared to 39 2P% he had during his college career, it’s a huge jump. He was so efficient altogether from the field (68.2 eFG%) that he started to draw frequent fouls.
And then he even started to share it with his teammates in such a nice kick from a P&R.
Finally, as regards his defense, with the following plays, Jamorko confirmed that he may not be a defensive ace… at least not yet.
But with the following plays, he indicated that he is trying not to be a liability on that end either when used to his strengths and within a coherent defensive unit.
The film confirms Duke’s assumption that Pistons No. 54 should do well when being faced with wings (the first clip shows that it probably may be extended to include guards). And the film also shows him playing the main role, but a role that is much easier for his teammates take care of their own assignments (or switch them with each other) in a superb way that prevent him from being putted out of position when his asked to do his work.
As a 23-year-old senior with underwhelming efficiency from inside the arc, Jamorko Pickett came to Detroit a little unnoticed. However, apparently he’s making noticeable strides in his development. If he keeps this pace, he soon can be recognized as one of the main cogs of Motor City Cruise knocking at the doors of Detroit Pistons rotation.