Houston Rockets: Terrence Jones Is Showing Improvement
Terrence Jones has become quite the player, hasn’t he? The athletic power forward out of Kentucky has had a very welcome transformation in his time with Houston. As a rookie, Jones was a very rough-around-the-edges player. He flashed potential at times, but also made some pretty infuriating plays for the Rockets. That’s how it is with the majority of the rookies in this league, as it takes some time to get used to the NBA style of play.
As time has gone on, Jones has polished off some of those rough edges, and has actually become a very good NBA power forward. He has become a key component to Houston and their championship aspirations. And it has come at a great time. With the team actively looking for its third member to form their own “Big Three,” there hasn’t been a much better candidate than Terrence Jones. As Mauricio Putz has covered here on HoopsHabit, Jones is becoming an indispensable part of the rotation. His remarkable improvement shows when comparing his past seasons:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/9/2014.
Jones has shown improvement in each and every one of his seasons so far. Starting out as a question mark in his rookie season, Jones only saw 19 games, with only 14.5 minutes per game that year. He only had 5.5 points per game and 3.4 rebounds per game on 45.7 percent shooting. His second season saw a pretty big jump in production, as the Rockets actually started him for 71 games and played him for 27.3 minutes per game. His production went up in almost every category, save for his disappointing 60.5 percent from the free throw line. Other than that, his rise to stardom had begun.
His third season has picked up exactly where the second one left off. His production continues to go up across the board. His 14 points and 7.5 rebounds per game are both career highs and he is making three pointers at a high enough clip to be considered a legitimate “stretch four.” Of course, all of this is within a small sample size. Within that sample size, he has also committed two turnovers per game and a whopping four fouls per game. All of this with only 29 minutes of playing time.
Clearly, Jones is earning more and more minutes, he just needs to clean up a few aspects of his game before coach Kevin McHale can do that. For one, you can’t play a guy for 36 minutes per game if he has four or more fouls on him. So far, that has only been the only real knock on his game. His improvement has made him an indispensable player for Houston, so it will be of the utmost importance finding a way to keep him on the court for longer than 29 minutes.
The Rockets have a a bit of a test this upcoming week. With the news that Jones and Patrick Beverley will miss the whole week, the Rockets could be in for a bit of a challenge. It’s not easy to lose two of your starters, especially when one of them is as good as Terrence Jones has been for the team. Hopefully, the injury bug doesn’t decimate the Rockets and the team can stay relatively healthy. Luckily for us, the Rockets have been one of the best teams in the league and can handle a week long absence from one of their best players.