Derrick Jones Jr. is soaring to new heights in Dallas

If you have any Derrick Jones Jr. memories from before this season, they’re most likely from the 2020 dunk contest. It was one of the greatest bouts of all time, with Jones controversially triumphing over Aaron Gordon after a night full of insane and never-before-seen dunks. DJJ briefly gained a modicum of fame, but his victory, combined with his role as a low-usage, low-minutes reserve, pigeonholed him in many people’s eyes as “just” a dunker. A few lackluster and injury-riddled seasons since then didn’t prove them wrong.

But Jones is so much more than a one-dunk pony. At 6’6” with a seven-foot wingspan, quick lateral movement, and the aforementioned gravity defiance, he has enough physical tools to stock a Home Depot. His versatility was recognized early on in Miami, where coach Erik Spoelstra used him as the first line of defense in the Heat’s famously unorthodox defenses. His spindly frame closed off passing lanes and dissuaded drivers unused to seeing that much length at the top of a zone, while his leaping ability made him a menace in transition. But no team since has quite captured his magic — until Dallas came calling.

With the Mavericks, Jones has found an opportunity to shine on both ends of the ball. Offensively, the otherworldly talent of Luka Doncic puts Jones in the best possible position to succeed, papering over his shortcomings while accentuating his strengths like a realtor presenting a fixer-upper. Defensively, he’s one of the few plus defenders on the roster, and he’s by far the most flexible. That combination makes him irreplaceable to Dallas.

Coach Jason Kidd deploys Jones as a stopper against the other team’s best non-center. Jones has faced the fourth-hardest matchups in the entire league, ranging from Kawhi Leonard to Ja-less Desmond Bane, Kevin Durant to Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Scottie Barnes.

Notably, Jones is taking on all of these elite matchups without fouling — his 2.9% foul rate is by far a career-low and a big part of his success. Jones is a slithery nuisance, sliding around the court with his garden-hose arms, getting in the way of everyone. He can mirror all but the shiftiest ballhandlers with ease, and his athleticism makes him a particularly difficult nut to crack for jump shooters:

Despite his knife’s-edge frame, he can absorb contact from bigger players and still bother drives:

The Mavericks allow an effective field goal percentage 3.9% lower when Jones is on the floor than when he’s off (and that’s despite playing most of his possessions with Grant Williams, who has been a lead anchor dragging down every lineup he’s been in for the last two months — more on that shortly). That’s in the 94th percentile for players leaguewide.

Jones provides solid help instincts and secondary rim protection, too, like here, where he covers up for a Luka Doncic flub:

You’ll never hear Jones complain about Doncic, though. Jones’ 10.6 points per game are by far a career-high (even adjusting for minutes), and he owes quite a bit of his success to the all-seeing, smirking MVP candidate. The point guard’s ability to emit cross-court lasers has boosted Jones’ marksmanship, especially when teams leave him wide-open by putting centers on him:

Jones is shooting 36% from deep on respectable volume (4.4 attempts per game), both career-best marks by a considerable amount. That quarter-decent shot has opened up more room for his pump-and-drive game. Jones’ athleticism lets him blow past even cautious closeouts and finish at the rim, where he makes up for sometimes-iffy touch with hangtime:

Jones’ handle still isn’t a strength, but he’s putting it on the floor more than he ever has (he’s averaging a career-high in dribbles per touch) and showcasing an ability to create his own shot when attacking a scrambling defense:

He doesn’t jam while attacking those closeouts as much as you’d think. Jones is a freaky dunker when given some room, but he isn’t a one-leg jumper, which limits his opportunities to fly. His trademark is the two-handed tomahawk off two feet, but he also hunts tip dunks with the single-minded focus of my toddler rifling through cabinets looking for the last graham cracker. When he’s given a runway, it looks like a gymnast coming off a springboard:

Unfortunately, Jones also rebounds like he’s the size of a gymnast. As a team, the Mavericks struggle on the boards, and Jones’ whisper-thin body doesn’t hold up well in boxouts. While he’s often stationed on the perimeter, limiting his ability to sit in the paint waiting for a board, I’d love to see him attack rebounds more aggressively.

Thankfully, Jones’ other major weakness doesn’t matter much on this team. A squad with Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic, and Dante Exum doesn’t need more passing, which is good, because Jones is a play finisher, not a playmaker. Not to say he’s selfish: he’ll go long stretches without receiving a pass at all, and the ball doesn’t stick in his hands. But if he touches it, it’s going up more likely than not. That’s his job. As he said earlier in the season:

“[Doncic] and Kai draw so much attention and him drawing that much attention. I mean, like I said, it's a simple game," Jones said. "I just have to make my job very easy. I get a shot, take the shot [and] make the shot. If I get a layup, take the layup [and] make the layup. It's a simple game, but it's just I have to play the game the right way."

Jones is essentially a 3-and-D guy, but unlike the vast majority of minimum-contract players in the league, he’s holding up both ends of that moniker. And Dallas needs it! You want to surround a transcendent offensive engine like Luka Doncic with athleticism, defense, and shooting, but it’s hard to find all three in one package. Jones overflows with the first two, and the shooting has been enough so far. Teams don’t really respect him from deep, but they don’t completely ignore him out there anymore, either. He’s shown enough juice to make it work offensively — as long as he’s not sharing the court with Grant Williams.

Lineups with DJJ and without Williams have performed in the 93rd percentile leaguewide, with a top-decile offensive rating, in 700 possessions. The 950 possessions with both have been some of the worst units in the league, despite Williams opening the season like a bat out of hell. Lineups with Williams and without Jones have done okay but haven’t been able to defend high schoolers, much less NBA opponents. If the Mavs want to maximize Jones, they must minimize Williams.

Jones has been one of the best minimum signings in the league, and he’s become a quality starter for a team that desperately needs his skills. While Jones is outperforming his historical shooting level, he’s never played with someone like Doncic, which gives hope he can sustain a percentage in the mid-thirties from downtown all season. The regular season matters because seeding matters, particularly in the Western Conference, and Jones’ stellar performance is a big part of why the Mavericks are in the hunt for home-court advantage.