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Minnesota Timberwolves: What Recalling Tyus Jones Means Going Forward

By Aaron Mah

Nov 10, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Tyus Jones (1) against the Charlotte Hornets at Target Center. The Hornets defeated the Timberwolves 104-95. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 10, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Tyus Jones (1) against the Charlotte Hornets at Target Center. The Hornets defeated the Timberwolves 104-95. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Minnesota Timberwolves recalled Tyus Jones from the NBA D-League this week and immediately threw him into the fire the very next day. What do we make of all this?

The Minnesota Timberwolves recalled their rookie point guard, Tyus Jones, from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League this past Wednesday.

After Jones averaged 24.7 points, 5.0 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 35.2 minutes per game in the six D-League contests he appeared in, the Wolves brass made a cautious decision to bring him back to the Twin Cities, and subsequently threw him into the fire the very next day.

More interestingly, six days after the rumors surrounding Minnesota making Kevin Martin available in trade talks trickled through the ethernet, the 12-year veteran received a mysterious DNP-CD while the Apple Valley, MN., native enjoyed his longest stint in an NBA game.

As the loses continue to pile — albeit after a surprising start — the writing has become blatantly clear on the wall for K-Mart.

With Sam Mitchell‘s preference to play — or at least start — Andrew Wiggins at the 2, and the perpetual nerve-racking performance of Zach LaVine at the backup point, the management has quietly and implicitly shifted the team’s internal objectives for the season.

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From here on out, the Wolves seems committed to finally practice what they have been preaching since training camp. With their faint playoff dreams slowly dissipating, the youth movement should come into fruition in full force.

This means more Gorgui Dieng paired with Karl-Anthony Towns, more Shabazz Muhammad as the small-ball 4, and more Tyus finding his niche as the backup 1.

The rotational changes not only call for a philosophical shift, but also a changeover in roles. This sentiment holds most true for the team’s reigning Slam Dunk Champion, Zach LaVine.

As the Wolves’ excellent color analyst, Jim Peterson, so astutely described during Minnesota’s tromping suffered at the hands of the San Anontio Spurs this Wednesday, “Tyus Jones can do for Zach LaVine what Patty Mills does for Manu Ginobili.”

Although Jones ended his inaugural extended NBA game a -11, the former Duke Blue Devil — for the most part — looked great running the offense. Explicitly, Tyus has an inherent feel for the game and a controlled/paced way of negotiating the pick-and-roll.

He effectively offsets his diminutive size by expertly utilizing screens to create angles, passing lanes, and space to get off his shot. Unlike LaVine, who’s pretty much a stop-and-pop jumpshooter or straight-line driver when coming off a spread pick-and-roll, Jones has the natural instincts to keep his dribble alive and use his body to snake the screen, as he lets his passing lanes — and the play in general — unfurl.

Defensively, Tyus did, not surprisingly, get swallowed up in a number of on-ball screens — but in all honesty — LaVine hasn’t been much better defending the point of attack thus far into his career.

Most prevalently, Jones’ skillset allows Zach to what he does best: attack and score.

LaVine may not be the best decision maker, but at age 20, he’s already an awfully dangerous secondary ballhandler. As the scoring threat coming off a dribble-handoff or misdirection pick-and-roll, Zach’s concoction of three-point shooting and blinding speed makes him a stress-inducing presence on the offensive end.

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    • Not only is the former UCLA Bruin the Wolves’ most efficient pick-and-roll scorer — delivering 0.81 PPP (points per possession) when serving as the ballhandler in pick-and-roll sets, which ranks within the top 60-percentile in the NBA this season, per NBA.com’s SportVU Data — Zach is also a 37.8 percent catch-and-shoot three-point shooter.

    In fact, when playing the 2 with the backup unit this year — specifically, in the 77 minutes LaVine has shared the court with Andre Miller this season — Zach is producing over 1.23 PPP on a usage rate of 34.9 percent and a true shooting percentage of 60.4 percent.

    Both the eye test and empirical data suggests LaVine is not only a much better 2-guard than a point; he might just be the team’s second best player when playing off-the-ball.

    And by replacing K-Mart with Tyus Jones, the Wolves can finally maximize the skill-sets of their young pups. Not to mention, unlike Ricky Rubio or Andre Miller, the 6’1″ rookie can space the floor adequately when acting as a spot-up shooter.

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    So to all Minnesota Timberwolves fans, Merry Christmas! The season of giving has brought Wolves nation their wish of exterminating the Zach LaVine point guard experiment while eradicating Kevin Martin from the active rotation.

    Now, can we finally kick our feet back, relax, and see how the developmental phase unfolds?

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