Terrence Jones hit the unrestricted free agency market after the Houston Rockets renounced his rights. The Rockets essentially had to decide between two power forwards in Jones and Donatas Motiejunas. Houston went with D-Mo and Jones was free to leave.
In any other situation, Jones would be a highly coveted four in today’s NBA. He can stretch the floor out to the midrange, he’s athletic, he defends at a decent clip and blocks some shots. Unfortunately for him, things haven’t gone according to plan in his four seasons with the Rockets. With Ryan Anderson signing on to join the Rockets, Jones became expendable and moved on accordingly.
Terrence stayed in the same division as the Rockets and elected to join the New Orleans Pelicans.
Following from Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo! Sports.
Free agent forward Terrence Jones is nearing agreement on a one-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 14, 2016
Jones has yet to play a full season in the NBA. The 24-year-old product out of Kentucky had his best season in the 2013-14 campaign. He played 76 games in his sophomore season, averaging career-highs in points (12.1), rebounds (6.9), blocks (1.3) and minutes (27.3). In the two seasons since, Jones has played a total of 83 games and injuries have hampered his progression.
Jones will fill in as a nice backup to Anthony Davis and could even play alongside AD in some smaller, quicker lineups. Depending how much he actually signed for, if he’s healthy, this could be a steal for the Pelicans. The team has already signed other lower tier free agents like Langston Galloway, Solomon Hill, E’Twaun Moore and Tim Frazier so inking Jones isn’t a complete surprise. The Pelicans have a star and they just need to build around him. The only issue is the health of Davis and the rest of these pieces.
