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MikeCheck: As NBA Draft looms, Jaren Jackson Jr. reflects on first-year Grizz journey and shares rookie cheat code with top incoming prospects

MEMPHIS – If the wiser, more seasoned 19-year-old Jaren Jackson Jr. of today could reach back in time and have a talk with the younger, eager and detrimentally anxious version of himself this time a year ago, the conversation would start something like this:

“I’d say, ‘Yo! Calm down,’” Jackson said of the first piece of advice he’d give himself on the verge of entering the NBA. “I was doing so much. I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get ready. I’ve got to get ready.’ My agent was like, ‘You have to take some time off.