3 ways suggested free agency target Derrick Jones Jr. could help Cavs

Derrick Jones Jr., who has come on this year for the Miami Heat, was recently a suggested free agency target for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here, we’ll examine how he could help the Cavs.

For now, the Cleveland Cavaliers and other NBA teams are still on a novel coronavirus-induced hiatus.

It appears, though, that the 2019-20 season could very well resume, at least to some capacity.

On Tuesday, the New York Times‘ Marc Stein reported that before teams were to play in a singular location such as Orlando or Las Vegas, it was being discussed as a template for teams to have a “Training Camp 2.0” before heading to those types of locations.

Along with that report from Stein, on Wednesday, it was reported from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium and The Athletic’s Sam Amick that Orlando/Disney World is “a clear frontrunner” for a season resumption. Per Keith Smith of Yahoo! Sports, though it’s not certain if all teams will at Disney, the NBA is also looking to have “all 30 teams” in on the action, at least to have “some form of ramp up before the playoffs.”

What’s important to note here is that Smith previously was the first to suggest that idea of Disney World as a potential centralized site a NBA return. Granted with the league seemingly leaning towards a centralized location for a possible resumption, per The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, the league is still looking into the possibility of teams playing in their own arenas without fans.

Whenever the upcoming free agency period/offseason is, though, the Cavaliers are not likely to be all that active, and the salary cap is set to very well decrease from its’ projected $115 million for next season.

That’s given the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is “expected to be affected by the NBA’s tension with China,” as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor pointed out.

According to Fedor, whenever the upcoming offseason/free agency period is, it is “likely” that Andre Drummond picks up his $28.8 million player option for next season, and Fedor essentially would go on to say that of the Cavs’ free agency options otherwise, really, they’re set to just have the mid-level exception.

That’s factoring in Drummond, and “cap holds for free agents Tristan Thompson and others to control their Bird rights and an unknown cap number for a top 6 pick,” and as such, Fedor said that mid-level exception should be “around $9 million.”

From there, Fedor would say that if that MLE number would be “lower if they are a tax team.”

Now quickly here, when on the subject of the expiring Tristan Thompson, with how the cap is projected to go down, he noted how that could result in him just signing a one-year deal for next season on a zoom call with the media, via Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz.

With his presence on both ends on mostly the interior, I’d be more than fine with that if the Cavs went that route with Thompson, seemingly via the mid-level exception.

Now, per Fedor, Thompson is still “most likely” to be playing elsewhere next season, but with the Cavaliers having his Bird rights anyway and him being here his entire near-nine-year career at this point, I could see the two doing a one-year re-up, which again, is something I’d be perfectly fine with.

If Thompson and the Cavaliers don’t do something along those lines, though, a suggested free agent target for the Cavs of the Miami Heat’s Derrick Jones Jr., whom Fedor suggested in the first report mentioned, could definitely be worth a one-year deal via the MLE.

I wouldn’t expect TT to be back if that were the case involving Jones, though. A player that was compensated via part of the MLE this past season was Alfonzo McKinnie, too, but the rest of his deal is non-guaranteed, anyhow, and is for a minimum rate.

A one-year deal with that MLE rate Fedor mentioned, though, could prove to be worthwhile for the Cavs, and per Fedor’s report, it wouldn’t seem likely that the Heat would be willing to spend in that ball park to retain Jones, who was originally set to make $1.6 million this season.

So how could a signing of Jones help the Cleveland Cavaliers next season?

The first of three ways that jump out to me relates to the defensive end.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ first reason for targeting Jones: Wing defense

Jones is a fluid athlete on the wing, and though he has help around him in very impressive defenders such as Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kendrick Nunn, Jones’ 7-foot wingspan and lateral quickness, and good anticipation have enabled him to be a plus defender.

Jones, even at 6-foot-6, is more than capable of being a competent defender on-ball against starting caliber 3’s, sits and slides well to mirror ball-handlers, and his length and timing allows him to recover.

That would come in handy much more in meaningful minutes, and be a welcomed addition on the wing defensively over Cedi Osman, who has struggled mightily due to a lack of lateral quickness and he has problems staying with drivers. Jones’ presence could fill in well against opposing 2’s and/or be a nice pairing alongside Darius Garland or Collin Sexton in that regard, too.

Jones also has averaged 1.6 steals per-36 minutes, per Basketball Reference, and his feel off-ball stands out, along with his again, fluidity, in getting through screens to contest and really bother his primary matchups via catch-and-shoots/and against cutters.

Plus, even while only playing 24.5 minutes per game thus far this season, Jones has averaged a very healthy 0.7 blocks per game.

Overall, his wing defensive presence could provide quite an impact for the Cavs next season if they looked to sign him. Not to mention, Jones has done a commendable job a bit when locked into primary matchups against 4’s, too.

Secondly, we’ll hit on how Jones could help the Cavaliers in settled offense.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ second reason for targeting Jones: Finishing

Jones, who won the 2020 NBA Slam Dunk Contest (even though Dwyane Wade admittedly helped), is a great finisher.

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In his career to this point first for the Phoenix Suns and since, with the Miami Heat, mostly the last two seasons after signing a two-year deal with them in the 2018 offseason (of which this year’s was fully guaranteed before 2019-20), Jones has hit 69.5 percent of his attempts 0-3 feet from the rim.

He is an incredibly explosive athlete that is always going to have a presence in that way in settled offense. Jones can dunk with the best of them, but he also has nice touch near the basket as well, and is able to use hang time occasionally to hit runners.

His ability to hit those runners has shown more this season, too, and he’s hit 47.2 percent of his attempts from three-10 feet out as a result.

What is a constant with Jones, who has come on this season with 8.9 points per game, is his activity as a cutter and of course, lob threat.

He times up his cuts to the rack well and often receives passes due to that from Adebayo, Butler, Goran Dragic and post-trade deadline, Jae Crowder, among others.

Jones’ ability to do that would mesh well with great passing bigs in Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr., and he could feasibly get to the rack after dump-offs from Sexton, Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., too. Furthermore, thanks to his bouncy style/finishing authority and improved finishing skill level, Jones has placed in the 80th percentile thus far in 2019-20 as a cutter, per Synergy Sports.

That sort of thing could lead to him still being productive offensively in meaningful stretches on the Cavs even as not being a floor-spacer (just a 27.6 percent three-point shooter in his career), and could provide a different wrinkle for them athletically, if they were to target him in 2020 free agency. He always brings activity in the offensive rebounding department, too, and has had a career 7.3 percent offensive rebounding rate, per Basketball Reference.

Plus, even though the range hasn’t shown much yet, Jones hitting 77.9 percent of his free throws this season is at least an indicator that the potential could be there to improve as a shooter. His stroke is more compact than earlier on as well, which is encouraging.

Lastly, the third way a potential Jones signing could help the Cleveland Cavaliers relates to the transition game.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ third reason for targeting Jones: The transition game

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a squad that use more athleticism in the transition game, and Jones would bring that and more.

While pieces such as Sexton and Porter excel in that area due to their speed and relentless attacking style in getting to the basket, along with McKinnie to some extent, Jones could bring even more pop in that realm.

The aforementioned Osman is solid after getting transition run-out deliveries from the likes of Kevin Love and Garland, and Osman makes sound decisions as a passer in those situations, but Jones would again make Cleveland’s transition attack more lethal.

Jones would give the Cavs a big-time finisher in the open floor, and with his ability to jump passing lanes and get out and run, it would give the Cavaliers a number of easy buckets throughout games.

Plus, Jones, who is a good driver in secondary transition, helps out a bunch as a perimeter player on the defensive glass, as evidenced by a healthy 11.8 percent defensive rebounding clip thus far in 2019-20.

You can never have enough grab-and-go threats in today’s NBA, and Jones would fit in especially well in potential lineups in that way alongside Sexton, Nance, KPJ, Dylan Windler and others.