Fantasy Basketball Impact of Jaren Jackson's Season-Ending Knee Injury

Jaren Jackson Jr. was a surprise name traded at the NBA trade deadline, and now the big man is likely done for the season because of an injury.

Let's discuss what that injury means in the real world, and for fantasy basketball purposes.

Fantasy basketball injury news can be tracked on FantasySP all season.

Injury and Statistics

Jackson has to undergo surgery on his left knee. He has a localized PVNS growth that was discovered after the trade. Jackson is undergoing surgery now to ensure long-term health.

Jackson has been a good player since joining the league back in 2018. He spent the first portion of his career with Memphis before being dealt to Utah.

Jackson is still only 26 years old and is viewed as a long-term piece for Utah.

He's averaged over 20 points in the past two seasons, but is at 19.4 points per game this season. Jackson has appeared in 48 games, also averaging 5.7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals over 30.3 minutes.

His numbers were down in Memphis in part because of the lack of talent around him. In his first three games in Utah, Jackson averaged 22.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2 steals and 0.3 blocks over just 24 minutes a night.

His absence will hurt the Jazz this season, but well out of the playoff picture already, this is a move made with the long-term view in mind. Walker Kessler is already out for the season, so there's a big void at power forward and center.

Outlook for the Jazz

Jusuf Nurkic and Lauri Markkanen will start at center and power forward for the rest of the season, granted they are both healthy. Kyle Filipowski is one of the top backups at those two spots.

Kevin Love, John Konchar, Oscar Tshiebwe, Brice Sensabaugh and Cody Williams are some other options.

Markkanen is already owned in all fantasy leagues, and his value is up after the injury news for Jackson. His fantasy owners could look to sell high, but I'd be more inclined to hold Markkanen and enjoy his fantasy production the remainder of the season.

Nurkic is rostered in about 91% of leagues right now, meaning he's only available for a few of you. He misses his fair share of games, which is the only thing holding him back from being 100% rostered.

For the games he's active for the rest of the season, I'd want to roster Nurkic in just about every fantasy league. He is a nightly double-double threat, and has triple-double upside.

Filipowski has had a similar season to his rookie year, but I expect his averages to go up from here on out with no Kessler or Jackson available. He's averaging 9.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.4 blocks over 22 minutes a night.

Filipowski is rostered in just under 50% of leagues, and he's on the rise today, up 5.33%. I expect him to be added in more and more leagues as he plays and produces more going forward. He needs to be rostered in all deeper leagues today, and will be a standard league streaming option for games that Nurkic or Markkanen miss, or if Filipowski is in a hot stretch.

Love, Konchar and Tshiebwe aren't big fantasy assets, and I don't see any of them starring after Jackson was lost for the season. They are players to keep an eye on in case bigger roles lead to more fantasy success.

The guards and forwards in Utah will pick up most of the slack.

Keyonte George, who is battling an injury right now, is the team's top fantasy asset when healthy. Markkanen should be the next-best fantasy asset most nights.

Nurkic is probably after that. Isaiah Collier has been trending up, but that's a lot to do with George being out. Collier could still factor in more after the Jackson injury though, so he's a name to keep in mind.

Ace Bailey is a rookie on the rise, and the Jackson injury should allow him to take on more and maybe up his numbers even more. Bailey is rostered in 67% of leagues now, and he could get closer and closer to 100% with Jackson now out.

Svi Mykhailiuk, Sensabaugh, Williams, Vince Williams Jr. and Elijah Harkless are some other Jazz players to keep in mind moving forward. Like some of the backup bigs, they are more deep-league fantasy assets, but could get into good grooves and be worth standard league streams in time.

Utah might end up adding more big man help eventually too, so keep watching the team's transactions and gamelogs to see who is stepping up.

How to Approach Jackson

Things are pretty easy when it comes to Jackson as a fantasy asset.

He is droppable in all redraft formats now that he's out for the season. I just dropped him in one of my leagues.

That's a massive blow to fantasy teams, and you won't be able to find his level of production on the waiver wire, so you might have to mix and match the rest of the season.

Jackson needs to be stashed in dynasty/keeper leagues. He should bounce back fine from this injury, and he has several big seasons ahead of him yet.

Now would be the time to buy low on Jackson. There's some risk involved, but any time you can buy a high-end fantasy player low, you at least have to consider it.

Hopefully Jackson will be back for the start of next season and he gets back to putting up big numbers.