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A Closer Look at Perry Jones

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Holy shit, that pic is ridiculous. I've always had concerns about PJIII along the same lines as Drummond, but he's always intrigued me a bit more because I think he has a better skill set. I still believe he could potentially develop into a SF and become one of the best players from this draft. But, again, big time risk. I think I'd be a little more apt to go for him over Drummond, but it's still the kind of pick that can set a franchise back for years. If we stay where we are at in the draft, I'm hoping either one of MKG or Beal is available and takes anyone else out of the equation. They may not have the same ceiling, but they certainly are much safer.
 
I'll go ahead and throw it out there that even if Perry Jones doesn't come close to his ceiling, he will be an infinite times better player than Christian Eyenga.

No shit. But jumping ability does not equal NBA success especially when said player lacks drive and desire. Sorry I'm not swayed by a picture of a player jumping high in the air.
 
They said he was touching over 12'4

Wow, that's freaky! Jones can really get up.
Unfortunately, Jones just strikes me as a guy who is never going to reach his potential. He's the prototypical 'Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane' type. While he may be a world class athlete, he's not mentally strong at all, which is his Achilles heel.
Jones is the kind of guy who gets your heart racing when you see stuff like this. Fortunately, our heads can override our hearts.
 
No shit. But jumping ability does not equal NBA success especially when said player lacks drive and desire. Sorry I'm not swayed by a picture of a player jumping high in the air.

That wasn't the point. The point was your point was...irrelevant (about Eyenga).
 
The campaign is on to prove that the light has gone on for Perry Jones and that he has NBA Small Forward skills:

Baylor's Jones finally tapping into potential; more NBA draft notebook

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-- Anthony Davis doesn't need a draft strategy.
The big man out of Kentucky could spend the next three-plus weeks vacationing in Barbados and likely still be taken first overall, as he's living the life of luxury that comes with being seen as the cream of this draft class crop. But Baylor's Perry Jones III is the poster boy of a different kind, the kind of prospect whose stock could change significantly depending on the workouts and interviews with teams that take place leading up to the big day on June 28.
As such, Jones and his representatives devised a new plan in this eleventh hour stage of the process. Despite being seen as a power forward during his prep days and two collegiate seasons (a face-up four with the ability to go inside, to be more specific), Jones' small forward skills are being emphasized now in an attempt to make him even more marketable to the many talent evaluators who no longer see him as a top-five pick like they did a year ago. Jones, who has been training here for the past six weeks, took a break between his morning strength work and his afternoon basketball sessions to discuss his situation on Friday.
He is considered one of the greatest mysteries of this group, a supremely talented player with the rarest of skill-sets and size (6-foot-11, 235 pounds) whose lack of assertiveness, toughness or consistency in college raised questions about whether he'd ever maximize his potential. And while we'll delve deeper into Jones' personal story soon as part of our ongoing draft coverage, he had a message to share that simply couldn't wait: regardless of what position he plays, he's finally starting to see how special he could be.
"I feel way more confident than I ever was at Baylor," said Jones, who will head for Chicago predraft camp next week like most of the top-level prospects. "Working out three times a day, I feel great. I see the potential I have. I'm actually using the potential I have.
"I've been using it in workouts. They've been going great, playing three-on-three or one-on-one. I do a lot that I normally wouldn't do. I'm just a lot more confident when I'm playing ball."
Why now, and not before? Because, Jones claims, the group that surrounds him here is providing the vision that both him and the Baylor boys apparently lacked. His strength and agility work is being handled by the team at P3 Peak Performance, an athletic science laboratory of sorts in Santa Barbara where players from around the league come to get stronger while learning how to use their bodies more efficiently.
His hoops training, which takes place on the UC Santa Barbara campus as part of the program headed by the Bill Duffy Agency, often involves playing against fellow prospects and former NBA players like 28-year-old Al Thornton. The specialized work is handled by Ross McMains, a sprite 23-year-old whose playing career ended at Santa Monica Community College but whose coaching career unofficially began when he started attending coaching clinics at the age of 16. McMains, who spent more than an hour walking Jones through a series of nuanced and deliberate offensive moves during my time in their gym, is also improving his arsenal through a variety of video sessions. The digital tape on McMains' laptop on this day was cued to Quinton Ross and Bruce Bowen, both renowned defenders in their NBA days who McMains wanted Jones to learn from.
"It's probably the level of training (that has helped his confidence), the level of competition that there is now," Jones said. "It's far greater than college. Just playing against older guys, against more experienced people, all the time, having the freedom to just play basketball. That's the best part."
Which indicates, of course, some level of discontent with the way things went before. The Bears were a balanced scoring team during a season in which they finished with a school-record 30 wins and reached the Elite Eight, and Jones said he was hesitant to demand the ball as a result. His scoring and rebounding numbers were almost identical the last two seasons (13.7 points per game as a freshman, 13.5 as a sophomore; 7.2 rebounds per as a freshman, 7.6 as a sophomore). Asked if he thought he was used properly in college, Jones said, "I don't think so. Not at all. Seeing the player that I've become over the past month or so, I wasn't used well at all.
"For example, the first day (in Santa Barbara) we did a 25-shot drill. For college-range threes, I made 18-of-25. And from pro-range threes, I made 15-of-25. I didn't shoot threes well in college, and I barely shot the three -- I think -- because I was thinking a lot in college."

The numbers, as Jones indicated, weren't pretty: he shot just 30 percent from beyond the arc as a sophomore while averaging one attempt per game.
"I was thinking instead of just playing off of instinct," he continued to explain. "And I had a team (around him). I didn't feel pressure to be a great scorer because I had so many other people who could score around me. Just now, I realized that it doesn't matter who's on my team or who's around me, it shouldn't hinder what I can do best -- and that's score the basketball.
"I think now, if I could do it over, I wouldn't let anybody get in the way of me being able to score the ball. I wouldn't think twice about shooting it. I'm probably the most confident that I've ever been (now)."
Those same teammates that he so often deferred to saw the progress recently, too.
"I played open gym with a couple of my (former Baylor) teammates when I went to take my finals, and they were asking me why I didn't play like that the past two years," he said. "I had no explanation for it. I don't know. I guess the hard work is paying off."

Truth be told, though, even this well-constructed pre-draft program won't clear the memory banks of scouts and executives who spent the last two years wondering why Jones didn't do more. It could be argued that he has more raw talent than anyone in the draft, yet he could turn out to be a late lottery pick (I have him going tenth to New Orleans in my first mock draft). Of all the high-profile prospects being so seriously scrutinized, no one has more convincing left to do than Jones.
"(NBA executives) can either base things off what I did in college, or they can base it off what they see in the near future," Jones said. "If they want me to come in and work out for them, they can base it off what they see there. If they don't see that I've been working hard every day and that I really want this, then I can't say nothing about it."

The real small forward race: Jones certainly has some small forward capabilities, but there is no shortage of true "threes" to choose from this year too.
Kentucky's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist tops the list, and he's clearly among the possibilities for Charlotte with the No. 2 pick (if they hold onto it, that is). North Carolina's Harrison Barnes comes next and -- from what I'm hearing -- could go as high as No. 4 to Cleveland. From there, though, the rankings aren't quite so clear.
Case in point: Baylor's Quincy Miller (6-9, 200), who didn't make my mock but who could go as high as the mid-first round. After Slam magazine rated him the top prep prospect of the 2011 class in 2010, Miller tore his anterior cruciate ligament during his senior season at Westchester Country Day High in High Point, N.C., and saw his stock take a hit as a result. But he's heading in the right direction again, having averaged 10.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 24.4 minutes per game for the Bears while being named Big 12 Co-Freshman of the Year.
Denver is a real possibility for Miller at No. 20, though the Nuggets -- and quite a few other teams -- have their eyes on another combo forward as well: Iowa State's Royce White (who can play small and power forward but, at 6-8 and 270 pounds, will be undersized height-wise at the next level). St. Johns' Moe Harkless (No. 23 to Atlanta in Mock 1.0) is equally versatile and even more athletic, but there may not be enough teams with a need at the "three" for everyone here to find a first-round home.
Vanderbilt small forward Jeff Taylor, meanwhile, should be safe so long as defense remains a priority for the contending teams that pick near the end (rest assured, it is). The four-year college player is a phenomenal perimeter defender and a physical specimen in terms of athleticism, balance and agility (according to the P3 folks). He's a capable scorer, too, averaging 16.1 points per game last season with an improved inside-out game. It's the sort of skill-set that general managers and coaches typically love, and one that Taylor said he admires as well.
"I really like Kidd-Gilchrist," Taylor said when asked about the best perimeter defenders in this draft. "I think he really tries hard and he tries to guard and he tries to do all the right things out there. I definitely respect him."

Read more: Perry*Jones III*finally seeing potential; more NBA draft notebook - Sam Amick - SI.com
 
Seeing him jump so hi just makes me more angry he doesn't do it more often, just shows how little effort he put in during games, he should have been at the rack or getting to the line a lot more.
 
I think if he can really play the 3, then it might be worth the risk. I wonder if Byron could help him reach his potential like Gee.
 
I think getting a top small forward from the draft would be the best move we can make. Could be Jones, could be MKG, could be Barnes, but I think it would be the best thing for us.
 
Here is my ultimate problem with Perry. He is a TWEENER. I don't think that he trusts his ball handling, and that will become magnified in the pros. He also has the same problem as Derrick Williams, he can shoot the deep ball, but it takes him forever to get the shot up. It is a very deliberate motion.

When he can't shoot or dribble in the pros where does that leave him? He is talented, no question there. I didn't know that he could get up like that either.

I just can't see him pushing back when bigger grown men shove him around in the pros. He seems like the kind of player that would hang his head and sulk. Add Byron Scott's sometimes disciplinarian style, and Jones might find himself becoming real good buddies with Samardo....on the end of the bench.
 
Like everything I saw from jones in the interview.
 
Another article of interest.....

Perry Jones III Feeling Confident Ahead Of Draft
Jun 03, 2012 12:04 PM EDT


Perry Jones III sounds ready to tap into his considerable talent.

"I feel way more confident than I ever was at Baylor," said Jones. "Working out three times a day, I feel great. I see the potential I have. I'm actually using the potential I have.”

Jones, who is training at P3 Peak Performance, believes Baylor failed to maximize his skill set.

“Seeing the player that I've become over the past month or so, I wasn't used well at all,” Jones said. "For example, the first day we did a 25-shot drill. For college-range threes, I made 18-of-25. And from pro-range threes, I made 15-of-25. I didn't shoot threes well in college, and I barely shot the three -- I think -- because I was thinking a lot in college."

Jones struggled with poor shot selection and a tendency to disappear for long stretches of games.

"I was thinking instead of just playing off of instinct," Jones continued to explain. "And I had a team (around him). I didn't feel pressure to be a great scorer because I had so many other people who could score around me. Just now, I realized that it doesn't matter who's on my team or who's around me, it shouldn't hinder what I can do best -- and that's score the basketball.

"I think now, if I could do it over, I wouldn't let anybody get in the way of me being able to score the ball. I wouldn't think twice about shooting it. I'm probably the most confident that I've ever been (now)."

Via SI.com
 
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