Former Center Grove star and current Golden State Warrior Trayce Jackson-Davis, right, tries to keep the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson from driving to the basket during a game played earlier this season in New Orleans.
Tribune News Service file photo
Five years ago tonight, Trayce Jackson-Davis was taking the court at Lawrence Central, a senior at Center Grove heading into the stretch run of a season that ended with Indiana Mr. Basketball honors and a trip to semistate.
He’s no longer the biggest star in the building these days, but that’s to be expected when four of your teammates are bound for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Jackson-Davis returns to Indianapolis tonight as an NBA rookie, as his Golden State Warriors face the Pacers on the last leg of a five-game road trip. And while it might be just one game out of 82 on the regular-season schedule for most everyone else, it figures to be a special night for the former Trojan star.
“I’ve definitely thought about it,” Jackson-Davis said last week. “This is actually the first time that I’ve been home since August, so it’s probably the longest I’ve been away from home; you learn a lot about yourself. But just getting back in Indiana and seeing all of the fans and stuff of that nature, seeing my family — obviously that’s home, so it’s going to be great.”
Plenty has happened since Jackson-Davis was taken with the 57th pick in the NBA draft last summer after an All-America career at Indiana University.
Signed to a four-year contract by Golden State with the two years guaranteed — a rarity for a late second-rounder — he struggled to find a regular place in the rotation early on and even spent some time with the Warriors’ G League affiliate in Santa Cruz, California, appearing in four games there in November and early December.
During that stretch of uncertainty, Jackson-Davis found patience in part by leaning on his past experiences, going way back to the days before he launched himself into stardom before his junior year of high school.
“I feel like where I come from, even in my past, obviously, before high school, I played on the B team,” he said. “I remember during AAU there would be games that I wouldn’t play; I remember during USA Basketball I didn’t play a lot. So I’ve always navigated through that stuff pretty good and always kept a good attitude. Something that we learned during our rookie transition meetings was you’ve got to wait your turn — so just always being ready when my name’s called upon, if someone gets in foul trouble or they like the matchup with me in the game, I’ve just got to always be ready for that.”
Warriors player development coach Anthony Vereen loves the growth that he’s seen from Jackson-Davis in such a short period of time.
“Just from summer league, coaching and getting to meet him there until now, he’s a different player,” Vereen said. “You see that he was definitely coached well in college, and so we didn’t have to help him mature in that way, but just teaching him the NBA game, the NBA space and how he can be effective, and I just think he’s been doing a really good job with that.”
When his name started getting called more frequently, Jackson-Davis was ready. On Dec. 19, he played a career-high 29 minutes in an overtime victory over the league-leading Boston Celtics, posting his first double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. He’s been a mainstay in the Warriors’ rotation since, making three spot starts while serving as a reliable backup to frontcourt veterans Kevon Looney and Draymond Green (though he didn’t see any action in a Monday win at Brooklyn).
Entering Wednesday night’s game at Philadelphia, Jackson-Davis was averaging 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per night in 13.8 minutes of action.
Being surrounded by future Hall of Fame teammates in Green, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Chris Paul has given Jackson-Davis an inside look at the highest level of basketball; Green in particular has made it a point to help his young understudy develop.
“Draymond really has done a good job of trying to take Trayce under his wing,” Vereen said. “They had similar backgrounds, from the Midwest and coming to the West Coast, and so I think Draymond really kind of felt where he’s coming from and kind of saw a little bit of his journey here, so he really has taken a liking to Trayce — and so you’ve got somebody who can teach you the tricks of the trade that way, and then you’ve got two Hall of Fame point guards that you’re playing with, and you’re setting a screen for a Hall of Fame shooter.
“You just can’t find a better opening to your career.”
Not every day has been a sunny one during this rookie campaign — the Warriors lost assistant coach Dejan Milojevic to a sudden heart attack in Utah on Jan. 17, a moment that Jackson-Davis called “devastating,” and Golden State has had to wade through more on-court ups and downs than it’s been used to as it sits below the .500 mark and looking in at the Western Conference playoff race from the outside.
Jackson-Davis remains optimistic that the team, which won an NBA championship just two seasons ago, can find its groove again over the second half of the season.
“We’ve just got to string some together before the All-Star break and hit the ground running,” he said.
Regardless of whether the Warriors regain their mojo in time to make the playoffs, this winter has been a remarkable time in Jackson-Davis’ life. In just a few short years, he’s gone from guarding former Johnson County bigs like Michael Valle and Gavin Dowling to banging down low with the likes of reigning NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic.
Tonight’s trip back home is the latest moment in what’s been a surreal rookie season — one that Jackson-Davis hopes will be the start of a lengthy pro career. He’s enjoying life at the top of the basketball mountain, but he also hasn’t forgotten where the long journey to get there started.
“It’s crazy to think about six years ago, five years ago, playing at Center Grove and playing against Whiteland, Greenwood, the student sections chanting and stuff of that nature,” Jackson-Davis said, “and now you’re going toe to toe with the best players in the world. Joel Embiid, Giannis (Antetokounmpo), Joker … it’s nuts. It’s obviously a blessing to be here, and I’ve just got to keep working.”
