The Heat lost a little something while Derrick Jones Jr. was out with injury. And that little something was actually a big something: fun. Jones simply offers way more FPG (funs per game) than any of the other Heat players, and it’s not even close. I often use the phrase “and it’s not even close” in a sarcastic way, but not this time. Miami’s collection of overpaid role-players is very unfun, Dwyane Wade stopped being fun three years ago, I guess Bam Adebayo can be fun? Sometimes? But Jones is fun all the time, whether he’s improbably making threes with his angular shooting motion, grabbing an impossible offensive rebound, flying around the court at a million miles per hour, or levitating towards the rim for a monster whammyblam.
I think Heat fans agree with me. While lots of parts of the roster have been disappointing, Jones has exceeded all expectations. And unlike everyone else that he shares the court with, he’s not way overpaid for way too many years. Pat Riley still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Now he just needs to convince LeBron somehow to come back to the one place he had sustained Finals success. I’m imagining LeBron-to-Jones lobs, and also in the back of my mind I am imagining Jones-to-LeBron lobs. Wade can take an assistant coaching gig and watch with jealously from the bench.
Also, I’m really SUPER sorry about the godawful camera angle for one of those Jones threes where some fan’s head is in the way of us being able to see anything. Not the fan’s fault, more the fault of the camera dude who decided he would take a seat in the second row and just film random stuff, and the fault of the broadcast crew for switching to that camera.