Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Celebrating a leap year: Jones jump-starts career
MIAMI — New Year’s is a celebration this season for Derrick Jones Jr. because of what transpired on New Year’s Eve last season.
The past year is exactly what the athletic Miami Heat forward anticipated life could be in the NBA.
“Personally, the last 12 months have been great for me,” he said. “I was in a situation that I didn’t like. And then I came here.”
It seemed like an innocuous transaction on Dec. 31, 2017, when the Heat released 3-point shooting specialist Matt Williams Jr. and replaced that two-way contract with one for Jones.
At first Jones mostly watched from the bench, then was shifted to the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce for further seasoning.
At the time, the outside perspective of Jones was that of freakish leaper who participated in the 2017 dunk contest during AllStar Weekend despite barely playing for the Phoenix Suns.
All the while, the Heat saw the potential of a player ready to make, well, a leap.
By July, Jones was offered a standard contract. By the middle of that month, he had emerged as the breakout player of summer league.
And now here he stands, calendar turning again, as an essential component of the Heat rotation, including a 16-point, nine-rebound performance in filling in Sunday for sidelined starting power forward James Johnson.
“My agent told me there were a few teams that were offering a two-way [contract],” Jones, 21, said of where he stood a year ago, “but this was the place I knew would push me to another level, just like they did.
“They pushed me to the player I thought I was going to be in a couple of years. Coming into this league, I was 18 and I got here at the age of 20. But I didn’t believe that I would be playing as many minutes and doing what I’m doing right now.”
Stability had been in short supply for Jones prior to signing with the Heat. There was a single season at UNLV in 2015-16 shortened by eligibility questions, crickets on draft night in 2016, bouncing between the Suns’ inactive list and their G League affiliate in 2016-17 and the start of 2017-18.
“The last time I felt this settled was when I was playing on my dad’s AAU team,” he reflected on the practice court at AmericanAirlines Arena, “That was the only time. Me, personally, I still don’t feel settled. There’s a lot more to do and there will be a lot more done.”
And he is doing more, whether it is anchoring the Heat’s emerging zone defense, flying in for offensive rebounds or covering unexpected ground to block shots.
To some, the view remains more of athlete than rounded player. That, he said, is fine, because it is that athleticism that remains the trigger for all that has followed.
“Once I got my athleticism,” he said, “I just chose to just jump over everybody and dunk it every time. In high school, it was easy for me. Shooting threes, that’s just a bonus. Every time I shot it in high school, I made it. The 3-point shot was the bonus.
“If nobody’s going to be able to stop you from going to the rim, I don’t know anybody in their right mind that’s going to stop going to the rim if nobody can stop you.”
So call him a dunker who happens to do other things, and he smiles.
“Personally, I don’t care what people think about me,” he said, with the Heat turning their attention to Wednesday’s road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Me, personally, I know what I am.”
And if there is an invitation for another shot at the dunk contest after finishing as runner-up to Glenn Robinson III in 2017, count him in.
“Of course,” he said. “If they call me when I’m 32, trust me, I’m in that dunk contest. I’m not going to turn that down. That’s a whole lot of fun.”
So is this opportunity with the Heat, as unexpectedly as it has unfolded.
“Last year, I was staying at a hotel. I was on a twoway, so I didn’t want to rent a house yet and come into a big lease that I didn’t know if it was long term,” he said. “I knew that either way I was going to outwork whoever they put in front of me.”
Now there is permanency not only in the NBA, but seemingly also in the Heat rotation.
“In my heart, I believe that I work harder than anybody who steps on the floor,” he said. “If you step on the floor with me, either you’re going to be outworked or you’re going to be outworked. There’s no other way around it.”