For those of you who do not know who Jaden Shackelford is, you probably have not spent much time tracking the G League or keeping tabs on the Valley Suns. And there is a good chance SEC hoops has not been part of your regular viewing diet. But Shackelford has been putting in work. In four seasons down in the G League, two with the Valley Suns, he’s seen steady production, steady growth, and numbers that keep stacking.
After three years with the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team, he went undrafted
in 2022, which says more about how crowded the pipeline can be than it does about his ability. That Alabama team in 2021 went 26–7 and made a run to the Sweet 16 before running into the UCLA Bruins, and Shackelford was the leading scorer as a sophomore. Not a small detail when you consider the talent around him. Names like Herb Jones and Joshua Primo were on that roster, along with Keon Ellis and Alex Reese, and Shackelford still carried the scoring load.
Since then, he has bounced between opportunities with the Oklahoma City Thunder system and the Suns organization, carving out a role in the G League as a reliable offensive weapon. The 6’3” guard out of Hesperia, California, has had his best season yet down in Tempe. He logged 35.1 minutes per game, putting up 22.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, all while posting 43/38/80 splits. He is a score-first guard. That is his identity, that is his lane, and he leans into it.
And on Wednesday night, in the regular season finale against the Mexico City Capitanes, the only G League team without an NBA affiliate, he put that skill set on full display.
On Collin Gillespie bobblehead night, Jaden Shackelford turned the building into his own personal stage. Earlier in the week, he logged the first triple-double of his G League career. Then on Wednesday, he hit, and everything opened up. Inside Mullett Arena, the crowd got a show.
In the 114–94 win over the Mexico City Capitanes, Shackelford went for 54 points, 16-of-26 from the field, 5-of-10 from deep, 12-of-14 from the line, with 8 rebounds and 3 assists layered on top. Efficient, aggressive, in rhythm, the kind of night where every touch feels like it is headed in.
And with that, he became the Valley Suns all time leading scorer.
He has not cracked the NBA level yet, but a 54-point night has a way of turning heads. It forces people to look twice, to check the numbers, to ask the question of what comes next. It was a fitting way to close the second full season for the Valley Suns. For a team that finished 11–25, second-worst in the Western Conference in the G League and will not see the postseason, it was a bright spot.
