Tre Jones: Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups

Tre Jones is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 18 of the NBA season.

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ANALYSIS: At 22-35, the San Antonio Spurs opted for an active trade deadline that saw them collect a solid bounty of draft picks and a few players with uncertain roles for the time being. With Derrick White getting shipped to Boston and the buyout of Goran Dragic imminent, a window of opportunity has opened in the Spurs backcourt for some of the franchise's younger talents, one of whom being 2019-20 ACC POY/DPOY Tre Jones. He might've slipped to the second round of the 2020 draft, but just like his older brother Tyus, he has the skillset to consistently stuff his top statistical categories when given adequate PT, with the upside of a potential offensive uptick looming.

The former Blue Devil (how does Duke end up with so many siblings?) hasn't seen any G League action this season, but he did play seven games (31.3 MP) with Austin in 2020-21; averaging 18.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 9.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Strangely, he shot just one for 11 from three, yet he sank 30 0f 36 free throws (83.3%) in that time and hit 39 of 108 (36.1%) from deep in his final college campaign. In sparse minutes over 45 contests this season, Jones is shooting 87.8% from the line and 50.6% from the field, but he continues to struggle with a 15% long-range clip. Even still, with his PT at a season-high this far into February, Jones is working through the growing pains for a solid .627 true shooting rate for the month while producing 10.2 points, 2.2 boards, 4.2 assists, four total steals, and only one turnover in five outings since Jan. 30th.

Compared to teammates, he has a respectable steal percentage of 1.5%, a better turnover rate (10.8%) than that of Dejounte Murray and former starter Derrick White, the fourth-best ORtg on the roster (120), and now ranks second for the Spurs behind only Murray with a 23.7% assist rate. With such a keen eye from the charity stripe and an otherwise respectable shooting clip, it seems probable that this extended three-point shooting slump will start coming to an end here soon as he gets more and more comfortable at the NBA level. When Tre Jones sees 20+ minutes in a game, he's averaging 12.1 points, 4.0 boards, and 5.6 assists with 15 of 17 FT shooting (88%) and merely five TO; if that on-court volume persists as it should for the 12th place Spurs and he steadily brings his 3PT efficiency up to par, he could be a tremendous late-season difference maker for those in deeper formats.

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