Jaren Jackson Jr. missed the first 14 games of the season for the Memphis Grizzlies, but since his return he's certainly been leaving his mark on the court. He's been arguably the best defensive player on the Grizzlies roster and has a case for the top player on that end of the court in the league overall. Jackson has been the anchor for a Grizzlies team that is 5th in league in defensive rating at 110.3. He's also averaging more blocked shots per game than both the Sacramento Kings and the Miami Heat as a whole as per the Twitter page StatMuse.
Fun Fact: Jaren Jackson alone is averaging more BPG than the Heat and the Kings.
DPOY? pic.twitter.com/VxBgMGOUmi
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 14, 2022
Last season, Jaren Jackson made his return to the court for the Grizzlies after recovering from a torn meniscus. He suited up in 78 games and was the NBA's leader in blocked shots with 2.3 per game. This season, he is up to 3.6 blocked shots in the 11 games he's played since returning to the lineup. Just the other day, Jackson had a ridiculous statline of eight blocked shots in a win over the Atlanta Hawks. Along with his blocked shots, Jackson has been putting up 18.4 points per game, 6.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals while shooting a career-high 51.1 percent from the field 36.4 percent from the three-point line.
Right now, the main competition for Jackson as far as winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award is Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks who is averaging 2.9 blocked shots.
With Jackson anchoring the middle, the Grizzlies have continued their ascent into the upper echelon of the Western Conference.
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