Amsterdam native and Albany Academy graduate Andre Jackson Jr. has found his next NBA home.
Jackson, who became a free agent earlier this summer when the Milwaukee Bucks opted to decline his team option for the 2026-27 season, has signed with the Toronto Raptors, the team announced Wednesday.
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
The 24-year-old Jackson, a 6-foot-6 forward, appeared in 172 regular-season games with 52 starts during his three seasons with the Bucks, averaging 2.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and one assist per game. His most productive season to date came in 2024-25, when Jackson appeared in 67 games and made 43 starts, averaging 3.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 14.6 minutes per game. He also appeared in that season’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.
Jackson’s playing time dipped significantly this past season, appearing in a career-low 48 games and averaging just 8.5 minutes while putting up 2.4 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.
Prior to signing with Toronto, Jackson spent his entire NBA career with the Bucks. After helping lead the University of Connecticut to the 2023 NCAA championship, he was drafted 36th overall by the Orlando Magic in that year’s NBA Draft, but his rights were traded to Milwaukee on draft night.
He now joins a Raptors team that finished fifth in the Eastern Conference this past season and lost a seven-game first-round playoff series to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Toronto’s roster is headlined by two-time NBA All-Star wing Scottie Barnes. The Raptors have also agreed to a trade that would bring forward Kawhi Leonard — who led the team to the 2019 NBA title — back to Toronto from the Los Angeles Clippers, but that deal is on hold as the NBA conducts an investigation into whether the Clippers used an outside company’s endorsement deal with Leonard to circumvent the league’s salary cap.