Listen to KD – he knows ball:

As proof, here’s Kyrie Irving with the game-winning shot to win the 2016 NBA Finals:

Now, here’s Ian Jackson making plays like that:

I know what you’re thinking – those shots by Jackson were impressive, but can he make them when the pressure is on and the lights are bright? 

His last game, vs NC State. Game was at NC State – their crowd was going nuts. It was a close game that went down to the wire. Then Jackson hits these shots with the shot clock winding down – showing that he’s got ice water in his veins:

Those clutch shots vs NC State were even more impressive, because Jackson was walking the walk after he was talking the talk before the game:

Of course, he seems to be joking around here. But I bet NC State used this clip as motivation and the Wolfpack fans probably saw it and got even more hype for this game. 

Even though he’s joking around, I like the confidence to talk smack like this, paired with the ability to go out on the floor and back it up. That’s the type of stuff that you see from star players at the NBA level. 

The Modern NBA is About a Bucket

It’s no secret that scoring across the league is on the rise in recent years. Average points per game per team is 112.9 so far this season. It was 114.2 last season, which is a huge jump from 93.4 PPG in the 2003-2004 season. 

Ian Jackson is a bucket. 45 points at the 2023 SLAM Summer Classic for the player with the nickname, Captain Jack: 

Sure, this was an all-star game where there wasn’t a ton of defense being played. But still, 45 points is 45 points. It’s impressive, especially taking home MVP in a game that also featured Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe, Tre Johnson and AJ Dybantsa. 

There is certainly defense being played in the games Jackson has been playing in this season for UNC. He’s scoring the basketball at will, averaging 23.1 PPG over his last 6 games. 

To put Jackson’s scoring in perspective, let’s look at the freshman season numbers for him compared to Brandon Miller, the no. 2 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft:

They have pretty similar numbers across the board. Miller has a much higher FT% and higher 3PA volume, but I like that Jackson has a better balance to his offensive game—not relying as much on the 3-ball and being more of a threat to score at the rim. Jackson has significantly higher unassisted makes at the rim / 40 mins and higher FG% at the rim. So Jackson is better at pressuring the rim and scoring at the rim while also having the higher 3 FG%. 

Both Jackson and Miller were older freshmen. Jackson is a few months younger than Miller was as a freshman. 

Work Ethic

The more I scout NBA draft prospects, the more I realize that while both stats and film are necessary for a thorough, accurate evaluation, intangibles also play a pretty big factor in how well or poorly these players do long-term in the NBA. 

The two intangibles I think have the most significant impact on NBA success are work ethic and confidence. We’ve already touched on Jackson’s confidence a bit. How about work ethic? 

Well, let’s talk about Chris Brickley. Brickley is a well-known skills trainer. He’s trained Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Love, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, CJ McCollum, D’Angelo Russell, Kevin Durant, Amare Stoudemire, and more. 

A quick Google search of “Ian Jackson Chris Brickley” returns 6+ pages worth of content, including this workout video:

Jackson has been working out with Brickley for over 2 and a half years now. Brickley has also trained Donovan Mitchell. That’s probably what led to Jackson playing in pickup games during the summer of 2024 with Mitchell and other NBA players like Trae Young:

Jackson has worked with other trainers, too – such as Andre Brown:

In addition to Brickley, Joel Embiid has worked with skills trainer Drew Hanlen. Hanlen also trains other NBA players, such as Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal, Tyrese Maxey, and Tyler Herro. 

Tatum has been working with Hanlen since he was only 13 years old. The fact that Tatum has been working out with an NBA trainer since he was 13 shows his work ethic. And look what Tatum has done – top 5 player in the league and NBA champion. 

It seems like Ian Jackson also has a very strong ethic. He shot around 28% from 3 last season in Overtime Elite but has improved to 42.7% so far this season at North Carolina—despite facing much tougher competition and shooting from a deeper 3-point line. 

That progression is a credit to his work ethic and all of those hours in the gym – with trainers like Brickley and Brown. 

We’ve looked at some film of Jackson hitting 3’s and scoring in a variety of ways at the SLAM Summer Classic. Next, let’s look at what else Jackson has in his bag:

As you can see at this point, Jackson is a bucket. And he’s only 19 years old. It’s easy to see him eventually averaging 20+ PPG in the NBA. 
One metric I have found to be a pretty good indicator of future success in the NBA when it comes to scoring the basketball is unassisted made shots at the rim per 40 minutes. Here’s a look at some of the top-scoring prospects in recent years, along with each player’s Unassisted Makes at the rim / 40 Mins:

The fact that Jackson ranks so highly in this metric is very encouraging. It means he’s got a bag. It means he can handle the ball, create off the dribble, pressure the rim, and score at the rim. 

One-and-done prospects who rank very low in this metric typically have not fared very well in the NBA – at least not yet. Some of them are Patrick Baldwin Jr, Cam Reddish, Ziaire Williams, TyTy Washington, Caleb Houstan and Kevin Knox. 

Passing

I think Jackson is an underrated passer and an underrated defender. 

Here’s a play where we see both. Jackson makes a nice steal, pushes the ball up the floor, sees the floor, and makes a good pass to the open shooter:

Next, let’s dig more into the passing. While his 6.2 assist % is certainly low, I think Jackson has more playmaking chops than what the numbers indicate. 

Let’s take a look at some clips, starting with a play where Jackson shows off his tight handle; crossover dribble draws a ton of defensive attention, which leaves a teammate open in the corner:

We haven’t seen it much at UNC, but in his pre-NCAA film, Jackson did sometimes play PG. This makes him an even more intriguing prospect. It also makes him more versatile—having that ability to not only play as a scoring wing but also bring the ball up the floor, initiate the offense, and run pick-and-roll if need be. 

We’re seeing more and more NBA teams have success by deploying lineups with multiple ball handlers—multiple guys who can initiate the offense and run PnR. It makes your team harder to guard that way. Look at the Celtics last season. They won the title, and they often had 3, 4, or even 5 guys on the floor who could bring the ball up and get the team into its offense. 

Here are a few plays where he ran the point in the McDonald’s All-American game, including a play where he broke Ace Bailey’s ankles:

Defense

Jackson isn’t a great defender. But he’s not a bad defender either. I’d say he’s about a neutral defender, and I think he’ll be at least a neutral defender in the NBA. 

It’s common for highly rated high school players—they are the best players, so that means they score the most points. Since they’re such gifted scorers, these highly rated recruits often focus more on offense when they’re in high school (and during their one college season), with the defensive progression coming later. We’ve seen it with guys like Anthony Edwards, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, etc. 

Even guys like Steph Curry and Michael Jordan were elite offensive talents, and it wasn’t until they were in the NBA for a few years that they started to get really good on defense. 

With that being said, Jackson has already shown some impressive flashes on D, as we see in this video. There are even a couple of plays here where Jackson does a nice job defending Dylan Harper – that’s no easy task. Harper is probably the best scorer in the 2025 draft class:

Weaknesses 

The main critique I have seen some folks have about Jackson is that he’s a 2-guard who’s one-dimensional – with the one dimension being scoring. I think that is fair to some extent, but as I’ve just pointed out, Jackson is underrated as a passer and as a defender.

Also, scoring is essential in the modern NBA. 

Another critique some have is that Jackson isn’t a true point guard and is undersized on the wing (he’s listed at 6’4″). However, these are all players who are not true PGs and are 6’5″ or under: Jamal Murray, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, CJ McCollum, Bradley Beal, Norman Powell, Jaden Ivey, and Allen Iverson, too.

The other one is age. Jackson is pretty old for a freshman. He turns 20 in February. Some folks might say that means he has a lower ceiling. However, these are all players who were 20 or older when drafted: Steph Curry, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Miller, Jared McCain, Jalen Williams, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, Jimmy Butler, Damian Lillard, Kemba Walker, Pascal Siakam, Mikal Bridges, Donovan Mitchell and Desmond Bane. Some pretty good players, in my opinion – all of them would go top 5 in a re-draft for their respective class. 

Role Projection 

It might be a bit ambitious to project Jackson as the no. 1 scoring option on a playoff team. However, if we look at guys like Bradley Beal, Brandon Ingram, De’Aaron Fox, Ja Morant, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Kemba Walker, and Devin Booker – all of them have been the no. 1 option on playoff teams. If we just look at the numbers during each player’s freshman season (such as points per 40 mins, TS%, 3PA volume, unassisted makes at rim / 40 mins, etc.) Jackson stacks up very well with all those guys. 

More realistically, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Jackson could be a solid number-two scoring option on some good NBA teams when he reaches his prime. Guys like Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray, and Khris Middleton have been the number-two scoring options on recent championship teams. Jackson could end up having that type of impact at the NBA level. 

He likely won’t be an elite defender or passer, but I think he’ll be good enough in both areas to help his team win games. Especially when you factor in how strong his work ethic appears to be so he’ll likely keep getting better in both areas. 

One team I think he could be a good fit for is San Antonio. They could use a legit no. 2 scoring option to pair with Victor Wembanyama. That could be Ian Jackson. Plus, Jackson could fit nicely at the 2, with Stephon Castle at the 1. Those two guys could complement each other nicely. Jackson could bring the scoring and shooting, while Castle can bring the defense, playmaking, and good positional size at PG. 

Conclusion

There’s not much left to say. As you can tell, I’m pretty high on Ian Jackson as a prospect. 

I like his confidence. I think he’s got a really strong work ethic. The modern NBA game is about a bucket. He gets buckets, he gets them efficiently, and he gets them in a variety of ways. 

As of right now, Ian Jackson is a top 5 prospect in the 2025 draft class, in my opinion. The only guys in this class I would rank higher than him are Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper. Possibly Kasparas Jakucionis and VJ Edgecombe. That’s it.