New Orleans Pelicans Season Outlook: Terrence Jones
Terrence Jones has a chance to be the key factor in allowing the New Orleans Pelicans to play their desired style of basketball in 2016.
Quoth the Rockets, “Nevermore”. After an electrifying 2014-15 campaign, a missed flight and inconsistent play led Houston to move on from the versatile big man after 2016, not even giving him so much as a qualifying offer to retain matching rights on contract offers he earned over the offseason. Where the Rockets overlook, the New Orleans Pelicans are set to benefit.
Jones, at his best, can do a little of everything while not sacrificing his outstanding contributions in the areas expected by a traditional big man. He’s not your grandson’s stretch four– Jones already maintains a bigger frame than Anthony Davis reported to camp with this season at 6’9” and 252 pounds. He uses that frame to maintain positioning on both sides of the ball, blocking shots and bumping n’ grinding his way into scoring looks down low.
But what made Jones truly tantalizing coming out of Kentucky was the potential he had to do even more than bang and bruise; now, we’ve seen what that means on an NBA court. Blessed with a system that brought out his best in Houston, Jones has added a nice off-the-bounce game to complement a steady three-point shot and physical interior presence.
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He’s not a great rebounder by statistical measures, posting sub-15% rebounding rates in each of his four seasons, per Basketball-Reference. Yet his energy and leaping ability undoubtedly impact his team. Considering that Anthony Davis will need activity on the glass to be a successful in his own right, that’s a huge bonus.
Here’s the deal though: You guys know all this. If you paid attention to a second-seeded Rockets team in 2015, you saw a good deal of Jones. If you care at all about college hoops, you saw one of the most exciting teams in recent memory (2010 Kentucky) feature Jones a great deal. But what can he do for the Pelicans?
Much has been made of the stylistic fluidity that the Pelicans look capable of manipulating this season. Players like Solomon Hill and Anthony Davis will be a big part of that, sure, but Terrence Jones has the potential to make it all click.
Any good offense needs space to function. Putting Hill and someone like Quincy Pondexter next to AD offers a decent attempt at spacing, but having another true big whom the opposing defense must respect could really change what the Pelicans are able to do on offense. That he can move the ball, move his body, and defend is icing atop the cake.
So-called “positionless” basketball is only possible with unthinkable length and supreme talent; more realistic is putting players on the floor whose skills rise above those of their positional peers. They don’t need to match up with smaller players, so long as they can gain an advantage on the players at their actual position.
Lastly, the potential effect he’ll have on Anthony Davis is important. Playing with a former teammate always has the potential to boost the production of both players, but having that partner be another big man from an incredibly successful team might just blow the top off of all of it. I already mentioned the rebounding boost Davis figures to get, and he’ll likely be the primary beneficiary of the space Jones will provide.
Additionally, the comfort and chemistry will rival the partnership Davis has formed with any teammate. He has simply not been able to form a consistent on-court relationship with any one player for the bulk of a single season due to both stylistic differences and injuries (his own and others’). That could change if both of these guys can stay healthy.
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The caveat for all of this is how much it all hinges on the all-powerful “maybe”. We don’t really know what Jones is after a horrifically poor season, nor do we know what a player with his skillset can do within this offense. We’ve never really seen either of these things interact, but the possibilities are tantalizing.