Our player preview series for the Clippers’ 2027 season starts with their third-string point guard, Jalen Pickett.
Basic Information
Height: 6’2
Weight: 202 pounds
Position: Point Guard
Age: 26 (turns 27 in a month)
Years in NBA: 3
Regular Season Stats: 5.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.7 turnovers in 16.1 minutes per game across 50 games played (18 starts) on 42.2/38.6/78.9 shooting splits (2.5 3PA, 0.4 FTA) with 54.1% TS
Contract Status: Signed a two-way contract in August
Expectations
As Pickett was signed to a two-way deal towards the end of the usual NBA offseason transaction cycle, there are not huge expectations on him this year. However, Pickett is both older (almost 27) and has more experience (three years in the NBA) than most two-way players, and is at a position (point guard) where the Clippers don’t have a lot of depth. Thus, it’s quite reasonable to expect that Pickett, as the third point guard, will get rotation minutes this season – Darius Garland has historically not been the most available player, and Keaton Wagler is a rookie that the Clippers will be very closely monitoring. A fair expectation for Pickett will be that he is a competent backup point guard when called upon that can play up to 20 minutes in a pinch without hurting the team much on either end.
Strengths
Pickett’s biggest strength is his surehandedness as a ballhandler. He has an assist to turnover ratio of nearly 4:1, which is fantastic for a backup guard. Positive ratios at that level can sometimes be associated with an aversion to risk (which can be a bad thing), but there’s almost nothing more harmful than having ballhandlers that cough up turnovers all the time, so Pickett’s ability to get offenses into sets and limit giveaways is huge, especially for a Clippers team that has struggled with turnovers for years.
It’s on a small sample size (more on that in a bit), but Pickett has been a pretty good three-point shooter in the NBA, making 38.7% of his shots from deep. The volume is not there (253 total attempts across three years), but Pickett was a good shooter in college and there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be a capable three-point shooter on more attempts. Pickett’s shooting enables him to play off-ball, which means that he could pair with Keaton Wagler in the backcourt (on offense) to add some additional ballhandling and playmaking if the Clippers decide they want to relieve the burden on Wagler a bit. Of course, the preferential partner for that particular need would be Garland, but if some of the Clippers’ backup wing options are injured or don’t pan out, Pickett should be able to fit alongside Wagler on offense.
Weaknesses
For someone who has been in the NBA for three years and started 22 games, Pickett has not actually played that much. He has logged just 1595 regular season minutes, and a lot of those have been in garbage time. Therefore, Pickett isn’t as experienced as one might think, and even in a backup role there isn’t a huge track of Pickett being successful. It’s not that he’s been bad, it’s just that he could be less dependable if called upon on a regular basis.
On the court, Pickett’s size makes him a target on defense. He’s not awful on that end of the floor, but like any other sub 6’3 guard he can get bullied by larger players. Pickett does fight on defense, and has a bit more heft than other players of his height, but playing him together with either Garland or Wagler would probably result in really poor defensive units.
On offense, Pickett is not a huge threat to score the basketball, especially from two-point range. Well over half of Pickett’s shot attempts in the NBA have come from deep, and he’s taken just 31 free throw attempts across his career. That means he rarely ever gets downhill as a scoring threat, which also limits his playmaking capabilities. Don’t expect huge scoring games from Pickett if he is called upon – the Clippers would need to get scoring juice from elsewhere on the bench if he is in the rotation.
Summary
Pickett was a quietly good signing for the Clippers in a very turbulent summer. I don’t think he will have a major role with the Clippers this year barring injury (knock on wood), but he is slightly overqualified to be the third point guard on what looks to be a middling team. I imagine there’s at least a few games this year where Pickett fills in well in the rotation and helps the team win, and that’s all you can ask for from a down-the-bench two-way player.