'I can hold my own': Isaiah Jackson's weight gain, improvement spark optimism for Pacers
INDIANAPOLIS — Isaiah Jackson doesn’t know the exact number of calories he was eating per day, but it was a lot. Every day in the offseason, he ate four meals. Between meals, he mixed in two protein shakes. Somewhere in there, he found time to get into the gym, lifting five to seven times every week. Usually, he brought a friend or one of his brothers with him to keep him motivated and add some kind of competitive element to the workouts.
The result for the second-year big man out of Kentucky was more than 15 pounds of muscle, much of it in his legs to bulk up to 221. There’s no shortage of strong, powerful frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference, and Jackson hopes the extra weight will allow himself to match up better and stand his ground in the post.
“A lot last year I was getting bumped around and I would just flail my arms anywhere,” he said. “But this year I feel like I’m more stable. I can hold my own.”
The weight gain was another step in the development of the 6-foot-10, previously 206-pound Jackson, someone with all the tools — size, athleticism, coordination — to be a productive NBA player. He began his second training camp Tuesday knowing he’s capable of putting it all together.
“Last year, I came in with a lot of nerves, just wondering what the NBA was like, what practice was gonna be like,” he said. “This year it was just way more — I knew what I was coming into. It was like one of those feelings. I just felt comfortable coming in. I know my work, all the work I put in this summer, and I know as a team we’ve been working hard this summer, too.”
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The first test for the new version of Jackson was his teammate Myles Turner, the exact kind of big-bodied center Jackson gained weight to compete with. It was only one day of practice, but sharing the court with Turner again made him understand more of what he needed to do against skilled, savvy big men: Playing help defense without straying too far from his man coming off of screens to close out on jump shots.
Jackson and Turner guarded each other for most of the defensive drills in a practice Jackson said was especially competitive. Trash talk was common and increased for the winning team when the losers had to run. Jackson’s quintet, which included Bennedict Mathurin, TJ McConnell, Aaron Nesmith and Terry Taylor, came out on top more often than not.
“Players from Year 1 to Year 2 take on a different disposition, kind of knowing what they’ve been through for Year 1,” Turner said. “The game slows down. They slow down. We see all those things with Isaiah.”
Jackson said he feels stronger, but hasn’t lost any of his flexibility or springiness. His other emphasis over the offseason was improving his jump shot. He averaged fewer than one 3-point attempt per game last year, but made them at a respectable 31% clip.
As Jackson tries to add to his game, he’s in the perfect setting to do it. He has a pass-first point guard in Tyrese Haliburton to make life easier on offense and find him easy baskets. Fast, athletic wings like Mathurin can push the ball and amplify his abilities in transition, and he has Turner, an archetype of who Jackson is trying to be with his ability to protect the rim and knock down open shots.
Like his lean, athletic body at the beginning of the offseason, the framework is all there for improvement. The rest depends on what Jackson can do with it.
Daniel Theis misses first practice
Daniel Theis was the only Pacer who wasn't at the team's first practice Tuesday. Coach Rick Carlisle said the recently-acquired center had COVID-19 symptoms, but had tested negative over the past two days. Carlisle expected Theis back as soon as Wednesday if he tests negative again.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers: Isaiah Jackson gaining experience, learning from Myles Turner
