Quote:
Originally Posted by deej_0607
I wasn't going off anything he's done in college, tonight is the first duke game I've seen unsurprisingly TYUS crushed and was the best player on the floor vs #2 team. I've seen many of his high school games where he's got by far the highest bball IQ/poise I've ever seen from a high schooler. Also saw him play in the pro am league here in mn, which is mostly current college/recent college grads and overseas pros/like d league players and Tyus was the best player on the floor every game as a 17 year old heading into his senior season. Great finishing ability around the rim in traffic, solid midrange game, and great 3 point range and accuracy. Solid handle, room for improvement and just such elite decision making. I think he'd be one of the top 5 smartest pgs in the league right now. from the game tonight tho, it seems his D is severely lacking behind his offensive game. His pretty small, and weak looking compared to Wisconsin at least. Idk if all college teams will dwarf him like that. Wisconsin guards blew by him whenever they wanted and he didn't seem fully engaged on that end. He actually did better when switched on kaminsky than vs guards somehow
Also, though I've never seen him play with team USA, he's the starting pg for his age groups national team, which is pretty good evidence itself, he's the best pg of his class at least
I'm a pretty big duke homer, but I'm still not sold on Tyus Jones as a top prospect in this draft.
The 'age group' argument is ignoring that Muiday is the #2 or #3 guy in the entire class and is a point guard, just not for the USA. I haven't seen any GUANGDONG SOUTHERN TIGERS games, but the NBA scouts are apparently very positive on his performances. Muiday is pretty clearly >> Jones at this point.
Other than Muiday, I think Jones is likely in a muddled group of other SG/PG types, without much clear separation yet. He's the purest PG prospect, which is a positive for him imo. But he's also weak on defense, and as of right now would get eaten alive by NBA PGs. He doesn't have much going for him physically - he's shortish, not all that long and not a great athlete in terms of jumping or explosiveness. That means questions about how well he'll translate when driving, absorbing contact, and finishing in the NBA.
Obviously there's a lot of good stuff as well. Great passer, understands the game very well. Knows how to direct an offense and how to get his teammates involved. He's very likely a very good shooter. Fantastic A/TO ratio. He's a very good player. I'm just not sold on him as the best PG or an elite prospect because of the size and defense questions. I can actually see him coming back next year to Duke, although who knows at this point.