Duke’s Tre Jones got a rare NBA front-row seat; will that matter come draft night?
When former Duke point guard Tre Jones says he’ll fit in and figure it out in the NBA, he has history backing him up.
He started out in a Minnesota high school as the second or third offensive option, so he focused on defense and ball-movement. Then, as a freshman at Duke, playing with three future lottery picks, he again focused on defense and ball-movement.
Both times, he did what was best for his team. Both times he evolved into grander roles. That’s what he now tells NBA teams they can expect if they draft him. That could make him a mid-to-late first-round pick Nov. 18.
Jones knows teams will value him first for his defense. He believes he can affect a game immediately that way, and he feels he can be a lot more than a defensive specialist, eventually, at the pro level.
“The impact a defensive point guard can have on a team is huge,” Jones said in a media conference call Tuesday. “You see how all teams attack with their point guard in pick-and-roll situations. So being able to disrupt that — blow that up — for your team is going to be something huge I can bring to an NBA team.”
In a basketball culture that often anoints players as special early, Jones learned to wait his turn. His older brother Tyus, also a Duke alumnus, was always the more dynamic playmaker. Tyus, now with the Memphis Grizzlies, started out with his hometown Minnesota Timberwolves, and Tre constantly studied his NBA games up close as a teenager.
Then, Tre as a Duke freshman played with Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish — all top-10 picks in the 2019 draft. It was an ongoing lesson in “wait your turn, learn your craft,” that Jones now says benefited him.
“That first year (at Duke), I had a different role. My role was definitely lots more defensive-minded,” Jones said. “Year 1 to Year 2 was a lot different. I was still the defensive leader, but I had a bigger role in the offensive end for us to be successful.”
The numbers were strikingly different, and didn’t just reflect usage. Jones’s scoring jumped from 9.5 points per game to 16.2. Perhaps more importantly, his 3-point shooting improved from a shaky 26% to a solid 36%.
Old soul
Jones has an old-soul vibe that figures to serve him well as an NBA rookie, similar to how Cody and Caleb Martin’s mature approach sped their development with the Charlotte Hornets last season.
Point guard is likely the deepest position in the 2020 draft class. Ten or more point guards could go among the 30 first-round picks, ranging from LaMelo Ball in the first three picks to Charlottean (and Kansas star) Devon Dotson in the second 15.
How does Jones believe he’d stick out in that crowd?
“To start out, my leadership,” Jones said. “I’m going to set the tone for our team and get after it on the defensive end. I’m going to compete every single day: Whether it’s practice, whether it’s shooting workouts, whether it’s individual workouts. Whatever it is, I’m going to be working extremely hard on myself.
“That I’m ready for the moment and for what the team asks of me.”
Big Brother Tyus
Jones has an obvious advantage in draft preparation, in that older brother Tyus has been through all this before. Tre lived with his brother in Memphis some after Duke’s season concluded, until the Grizzlies left for the NBA bubble on Disney’s campus near Orlando, Fla.
What did he get from having a brother at the same position, with abundant NBA experience?
“You talk about advantage: I was able to go to almost all his home games in person the first three years” as a teenager, Tre described. “See what was working for him, what got him on the floor at an early age. But also what he needed to work on.
“So early, I got to see how NBA offenses are run: How the spacing is, how the calls are different from refs. So many different things, between the NBA and all the other levels of basketball.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Duke’s Tre Jones got a rare NBA front-row seat; will that matter come draft night?."
