Jones grabbing boards at record pace

UNCASVILLE » There was a certainly plenty of buzz surrounding Jonquel Jones’ second WNBA campaign as 25 percent of the league’s general managers picked Jones as the player most likely to have a breakout season.

However, not even those casting a ballot for Jones to arrive on the scene could have imagined just how much of a jump the 23-year-old former George Washington star would make during the 2017 season.

Jones is not only having a special season for the surprising Connecticut Sun but a potentially historic one as well.

Fans of analytics would absolutely love crunching Jones’ numbers in her second WNBA season. She is currently on pace to set WNBA record for rebound percentage as she enters Friday’s home game against Phoenix with

a mark of 23.44. Chamique Holdsclaw holds the league record with a rate of 23.29 in 2002. Her average of 16 rebounds per 40 minutes would also be a WNBA record topping the 15.1 mark by Tina Charles in 2010. Jones is currently leading the WNBA in both offensive and defensive rebound percentage and the only player to accomplish that feat for an entire season was Cheryl Ford in 2006.

If Jones maintains her current pace, she would finish with 135 offensive rebounds, which is the fifth highest total in league history. Yolanda Griffith owns the top three marks including a record 162 in 2001 while Courtney Paris is fourth with 136 in 2014. Not to diminish those accomplishments, but Griffith’s Sacramento squad shot 42.4 and 42.3 percent during two of those seasons while Paris’ Tulsa Shock made 42.8 percent of their field-goal attempts. The Sun are currently fourth in the WNBA with a 45.6 field-goal percentage giving Jones fewer offensive rebounding opportunities. The Connecticut Sun franchise record is 129 set by Charles as a rookie in 2010, a season when the Sun ranked near the bottom of the league in field-goal percentage. Also, maintaining her current pace, she would finish with 383 total rebounds which would trail only Charles’ WNBA record total of 398 set in 2010.

After her performance at the WNBA All-Star Game, Jones entertained questions about potentially being the best player in the world.

“It means a lot but I try to stay level-headed,” Jones said. “I just want to continue to grow. It is not one thing but continue to get better in everything that I do.”

Those who know her best would expect nothing less than Jones.

Sun assistant coach Steve Smith works with the post players so he has been entrusted with development of Jones since she arrived in Connecticut after being taken with the sixth overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft.

“She is the nicest, kindest person that you’ll ever meet, she is just genuine,” Smith said. “Because of those characteristics, if you come up to her and say, ‘I need you to run through a brick wall’, she will run through a brick wall. She is an amazing person.

“The organization is very happy. There is nobody more deserving that a kid like that. You like to see great people do great things and get the accolades for all the work they put in. Jonquel, she is so humble about it. She is not braggadocios or anything like that, she is very humble and you like to see people like that rise to the occasion.”

Jones had a challenging rookie season. While guards can occasionally hide especially on the defensive end of the court, Jones was being asked to go head to head with veteran post players like Charles and Sylvia Fowles. Her fourth regular-season game came against Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike and the rest of a Los Angeles team that would eventually win the WNBA championship.

Seven times Jones committed at least four fouls in a game and she fouled out of consecutive games as a rookie. A tendency to pick up fouls in rapid succession would occasionally limit her minutes. It is one of many aspects of her game she has worked diligently to improve on.

“I think it is just being smart, not picking them up too early,” Jones said. “It is tough, a lot of calls I guess are debatable but I have to be smart.”

Jones played at least 24 minutes just three times as a rookie but that number has jumped to 21 games playing a minimum of 24 minutes in Connecticut’s first 23 games this season.

Her teammates have come to rely on Jones early and often this season. Veteran forward Kayla Pedersen, who played 64 games with the Sun during the 2014 and 2015 seasons, truly appreciates what Jones brings to the franchise both on and off the court when she returned to the team this season.

“She is averaging a double-double, she has so much more potential,” Pedersen said. “She still has room to grow, I don’t have enough good things to say about her. She is very coachable on the floor and off the floor she is a great teammate, a nice person.”

Jones’ easy-going personality may not truly reveal how intense of a competitor she is. The reality is that a player doesn’t see their 3-point percentage jump 14 points and freethrow percentage improve by nearly nine percentage points without doing some extra work.

“(The WNBA is) much more physical, quicker, people get the ball quicker,” Smith said. “She is getting a little bit more comfortable , she is trying to figure out where to pick her spots, when to leave the area and go out to get rebounds. It is just a matter of feel, she leads the league in rebounding so she is obviously doing something pretty well right now.”