While the news is good regarding Jeff Teague’s return to the fold, he will still miss time.
In fact, he’s going to miss some meaningful time against some of the best teams in the league. The first two weeks of January feature games against the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
He also missed Thursday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Tyus Jones started in his place, and looked pretty good.
This was not surprising, mostly because he’s done this before. He started three games in late November after a sore achilles kept Teague out of action.
Now, with Teague expected to miss at least two weeks – and likely closer to a month – with a sprained MCL, Jones will get a chance to showcase himself on a much bigger stage.
“As always, whatever the team needs me to do, I’ll be ready to do so,” Jones said Wednesday, anticipating a start against the Bucks. “I’m hoping Jeff’s alright, I never want to see anyone go down with an injury. It’s this next one up and I’m ready to step in and help this team either way.”
Through four starts – including Thursday’s loss – Jones is averaging 10.8 points, 6.4 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 4.3 steals and shooting 35.7 percent from 3-point land in 38.8 minutes per game.
With the exception of a dislocated finger – on his left, non-shooting hand, that he said won’t affect his playing time – Jones added to his new defensive hawk reputation Thursday with five steals and pushed the pace on offense.
The Timberwolves lost that game, but Jones wasn’t the problem. In fact, the early stages showed how much of a solution he could be.
While none of his assists on Thursday were all that memorable, and none of them took place on the fast break, they were all results of moving quickly in the shot clock.
Notice the time remaining when Towns gets his shot off here.
If there’s one defining difference between Jones and Teague, it’s how little Jones likes to have the ball in his hands.
According to NBA.com’s player tracking data, Jones averages 4.92 seconds per touch, and dribbles the ball an average of 4.29 times before making a decision.
This part isn’t all that different from Teague, who averages 5.64 seconds and 5.30 dribbles per touch.
Keep in mind, for point guards, bringing the ball up the floor – often at a slow pace – skews this stat a bit.
What separates them is time of possession; while Tyus is a bottom-tier guy in that regard at 2.9 seconds per possession, Teague is in the top 10 in the entire league at 7.3.
In other words, the ball moves when Teague is in the game, but it happens at a much slower pace, and often occurs much later in the shot clock.
Jones has also improved dramatically defensively, especially in terms of going for the steal at the correct time.
According to NBA.com, he’s averaging 2.5 steals per 36 minutes (among players who have played in at least 20 games, and average at least 15 minutes per game), good enough for third in the league.
While the promise of Jones has seen its highest moments in the last couple weeks, none of this should be seen as a knock on Teague, his offense or the way he runs it.
With Teague in the lineup, the team’s offense has an offensive rating of 110.8 – in a much more concrete sample size than the starting group with Jones – which would be good enough on its own for fourth in the NBA.
He’s shooting 37.5 percent from 3-point land, is sixth in the NBA in assists and has been the main ball handler on a top-five NBA offense. He shoots and moves the ball at a high level and deserves his starting spot when he returns barring something unforeseen happening.
But, even in the small sample size, the Wolves have played a good brand of basketball with Jones on the floor as well.
In the 114 minutes Jones has played with the starting group, the Wolves have an offensive rating of 116.1, well above the first-place Houston Rockets when compared to the rest of the league.
But, as it has been chronicled, small sample sizes are never good to rely on.
Coming into Thursday’s game, Jones had shot over 45 percent with the starters. After going 0-2 from deep against Milwaukee, it’s down below 38. With a tough schedule ahead – one with zero breaks of two or more days over the next five weeks – it’s possible that Jones’ numbers will be brought back down to earth.
But even so, Jones has proven he can hack it as a starting point guard, at least in the short term.
He’s taken dramatic steps forward in his offensive game; adding a mostly reliable 3-point shot and learning how to quickly establish an offense as a facilitator.
He’s learned how to become a good team defender, and has most recently learned how to enter passing lanes at the right time. He’s virtually the same dynamic player on defense that he is on offense, and that’s a scary thing.
Most importantly, he’s learned to do this in the limited minutes Tom Thibodeau has given him off the bench and not let any sign of rust set in.
Now he’ll get his chance to show it on the big stage, with big minutes, in the starting lineup, for an extended period of time. At least until Teague gets back.
By then, he’ll have to hope he changed the conversation even more than he already has.
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