Arizona basketball roundtable: On Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s lack of minutes

Should the team’s only true point guard be on the floor more?

Parker Jackson-Cartwright began his junior season starting for the Arizona Wildcats, and playing more than 30 minutes in each of the six non-conference games that he was able to complete before suffering a high ankle sprain against Texas Southern.

He returned for the start of Pac-12 play, but has only been on the floor for more than 23 minutes twice (Colorado and Utah), and has been below 20 minutes played in seven of his last eight games.

Arizona’s offense has been underwhelming during this stretch as well, so do we think that the junior point guard should be seeing the floor more than he is right now?

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Brandon Hill: Again, for me, yes and no. I like when PJC is on the floor because things seem to flow better and the offense doesn’t bog down as much. Unlike the myriad of scoring wings on the roster, PJC is a facilitator who wants to pass (5.7 assists per 30 minutes). On the negative side, he shoots just 37% from the field and 26% from three. If he could be a little more of a reliable shooter he would be a true triple threat with the ball. On the season, PJC averages about 23 minutes per game but a little less than 18 since Trier’s return.

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Ryan Kelapire: It depends how the game is going. If Arizona’s offense is struggling to break a team’s zone, then yes. But I have always thought Jackson-Cartwright is best in a “change of pace” role rather than being a featured guard, so I’m not really on board with increasing his playing time a whole lot. His ability as a distributor is certainly valuable to this team, though.

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Steve Apter: No, he's a nice player but increasing his minutes doesn't affect this team enough to make a case for it. PJC’s pace and distributing ability help the offense but the Wildcats don't necessarily want to slow a game down and play in the half court too much. This team sorely misses a guy like Ray Smith who could give them more length on the perimeter and the ability to run the floor for transition attacks at the rim.

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David Potts: No. Parker is the best distributor on this team, but he is limited basically everywhere else. He’s shooting 26.3% from three. His effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage are far and away the worst on the team. And he’s well behind Kobi Simmons and Kadeem Allen defensively. Until PJC starts shooting the ball better, he can’t play significant minutes.

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