If Terrence Jones could hit his free throws, he would have had thirty instead of just twenty-four. But he had to go 3-of-9 from the welfare stripe, so instead of the narrative being “young player with potential is finally breaking out”, the narrative is just…nothing. There is no Terrence Jones narrative after this game. 24-point games don’t get narratives. If he had scored thirty, that would mean something. I would make sure it meant something, that it had some larger significance to Jones’ NBA career. Instead…there’s nothing.
It seemed like Jones was a forgotten man in the NBA after his stint with the Rockets. The Pelicans were able to pick him up on a very cheap one-year deal despite the considerable amounts of promise Jones showed in his second and third years (let’s forget his fourth year with the Rockets please). Did he have character issues? Probably, since he stomped a homeless man apparently just because he thought it would be fun. That doesn’t usually stop teams from giving out large amounts of money, especially if the player in question is still young and could still be a legit starting power forward in the league.
Moral of the story: if you’re a homeless guy, and you see Terrence Jones coming your way, you’d better run.