Washington Wizards: Tyus Jones may have a breakout season

Ja Morant missed 22 games last season due to a mixture of injuries and off-court antics. Due to this, Tyus Jones was forced to step up. In the superstar’s absence, Tyus Jones excelled, making it very possible that he has a career outing this year for the Washington Wizards.

The Wizards acquired Jones in the trade that sent star forward Kristaps Porzingis to the Boston Celtics and Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart to the Memphis Grizzlies. It was a move that set the team up to save tons of money while moving on from an aging star.

The former first-round pick has played for both the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Grizzlies but has had his best years so far in Memphis. Maybe he has found a home in Washington as a long-term asset to control the pace of the game on both ends.

Tyus Jones is coming off the best season of his career, can he keep it going with the Wizards?

Last season, in 22 games as a starter Jones averaged 16.4 points, 8.1 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 50% from the field, 41.5% from three-point range, and 77.8% from the free throw line.

While his stats dipped for the rest of the season, he was also on the bench behind one of the best point guards in the league. He also put up those numbers for over a quarter of the season, which isn’t a small sample size.

On top of his impressive base stats, he also limited himself to an incredible 1.5 turnovers per game. A player averaging over 16 points and 8 assists to limit their turnovers that much is an amazing feat.

It is very possible that he keeps up that level of production with the Washington Wizards as not only is he entering a similar situation on offense with a high-scoring shooting guard, a three-point shooting threat at the three, a talented shooting power forward, and a lob threat center, but he is also not going to fall off on defense just because he’s on a different team.

He may even end up with slightly better stats as he will likely be relied on to put up shots slightly more often than he was next to Desmond Bane, Jarren Jackson Jr, and Dillon Brooks.

With the change in scenery for Tyus Jones, there’s a good shot he puts up career highs across the board this year for the Washington Wizards. He will be one of the most interesting players on the Wizards to watch next season.