The Portland Trail Blazers continued their impressive offseason by signing Derrick Jones Jr. Here is why this signing makes sense.
Derrick Jones Jr. has not had an easy path to the current deal he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers. After going undrafted in 2016, he worked his way on to the Phoenix Suns regular-season roster.
He played for Suns for a little over a season, having multiple assignments to their G-League team, the North Arizona Suns, during that time. He was waived by the Suns in early December of 2017. He then signed a two-way contract with the Miami Heat on New Year’s Eve of 2017.
In the free agency of 2018, Jones signed a two-year minimum deal with the Heat who were impressed by his work ethic. Jones played well for the Heat for the next two seasons. He averaged 7.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game.
Why the Portland Trail Blazers need Derrick Jones Jr.
The Portland Trail Blazers do not need any more scoring. They have Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony, Rodney Hood amongst many others. who take care of that end of the court. However, Jones can score if needed, he averaged 8.5 points per game last season.
Jones is also not very strong when it comes to one-on-one defense. He is only 195 lbs at 6’6″ and gets pushed around by his opponent. This is one of the issues Jones has faced all of his career and why teams did not draft him.
However, what Jones has shown us is that he is a very capable help defender. He is able to use his incredible leap and timing to either block or alter a shot when his teammate has been beaten by their opponent.
He is able to replace some of the rim protection that was offered last season by Hassan Whiteside. He does not have Whiteside’s price tag nor is he a liability defending the perimeter like Whiteside was. In fact, he is able to challenge the 3-ball from further away thanks to his insane athleticism.
Offensively Jones is not a floor spacer. He shot the ball at 28.0 percent from deep last season which is almost right on his career number of 28.2 percent. However, the Blazers did not get him for this particular skill as they have a heap of 3-point shooters already.
Jones is going to strengthen the Blazers in transition. He has tremendous length which enables him to get deflections and steals. Then, once the Blazers have the ball, Jones is off to the races. He can’t ever be discounted in transition as his speed gets him down the court.
The other aspect of this is that Jones is able to turn a bad pass into a highlight-reel dunk. Again, this is where his length comes into the equation as the ball only needs to be near him for him to catch it. His massive vertical and long arms do the rest.
Jones is not the type of player who is going to hurt opposition teams for a long time during a game. He is the type of player who can give you five minutes a quarter flat out and chance the nature of the game. This move is going to help the Blazers against teams with athletic wings that normally feast against the less athletic franchise.