Over the past 7 seasons St Johns has mostly had Ponds or Champagnie as the #1 scoring option (the “go to guy” in a sense) Both great players with tremendous skill but both more ball dominate than Jones. Ponds liked to get the ball up top and toy with his dribble a bit to break defenders down. And while Champagnie could absolutely catch and shoot, a lot of his touches still involved him isolating his man and jab stepping until he either got enough room to elevate and shoot or decided to put his back into the guy and move into a post up situation. Awesome because they were often effective scorers but that style does break up the flow for a team at times and makes the outcome more reliant on that one player’s performance.
Jones seems to find his points more in the natural flow of the game. There are obviously times where he gets it and is clearly bucket hunting but they’re fewer so far. More points in transition, off broken plays, around the rim stuff. Will be interesting to see if things change as competition starts improving now but feels like it may be a more natural fit for the way Anderson likes to play. This team looks more reactive and everyone seems invested in the moment since they’re perhaps a little more likely to get the ball at any time. Just a random observation that may be proven untrue as we see more but I like the fit early on.