I've been seeing a lot of frustration on the message boards towards Jones throughout the season. I think the issue with him this season is simple. He was simply asked to play a different role than his skill set allows for. Jones is a prototypical role player. A 3 and D guy that every winning team has in their rotation. The problem was that this year's team was limited in a lot of ways including point guard play which meant that he had a lot more on his plate. Surround him with better talent and he is able to focus on things that he is comfortable doing (playing lockdown defense and spacing the floor). I believe that next year's team will be very similar to our title winning team in that he'll be very successful playing his role and allowing the pieces around him to worry about the playmaking on the offensive end.
Matt Jones
- Thread starter MyDudeG_rivals
- Start date
I believe he was more hurt than was ever released to the public....I wouldn't be surprised if he required surgery in the offseason with as slow as he was moving at the end of the year
Matt should be able to settle back into a more comfortable role given the talent on next year's roster. He also seems like the type of kid who will emotionally be fine with not starting next year. Not saying he won't, but if Grayson is back, well he won't start. If matt finds his shooting touch next year and is a 3 and D guy off the bench, Sign me up!!
I'm not gonna go in on him we've had a lot of discussion about him recently but I'll just say the all he is, is 3 and D is just trash. I think he was playing injured and did what he could manage. He'll be fine, we have a very big amount of time to talk about him till next season
I don't know if I'd agree Matt is being asked to play a different role. His role has largely been to play good defense and hit the spot up three. I think it's safe to say his injury has really set him back, because he hasn't done spectacularly well at either of those things lately (with the exception of some games here and there such as going 4/6 from three against, I think, Notre Dame). Matt has the rep of being a superb defense glue guy and a great shooter; it's been looking to me for a while now that he's a pretty good defensive player and an extremely streaky shooter.
Matt is the kind of player that sometimes fails the eye test yet has an overall positive impact on the team. (his +/- for the year was third behind Grayson and Brandon.) Next year I think he'll be back to a role that fits his skill set.
I've tried my hardest to give Matt the benefit of the doubt all year, so I won't gripe and complain about his performance this year. What I'd love to see hime work on is having a higher jump shot rhythm. He tends to only be able to get his shot off when he is wide open. I've noticed he starts his motion almost below the waist, does somewhat of a curl motion coming up and then releases the ball but not in a traditional manner. I think this hampers his ability to shoot over defenders. I'm no expert, obviously. I just picked up on this throughout his career here. I'm sure it was hard to jump off that ankle, so that may have been the source of the weird rhythm.
The role will fit the talent for Matt and everyone on the roster next year because of Tatum. Tatum makes everyone around him better because his skills allow others to do what they do naturally. Our entire team, Grayson included, will be better having played with Jayson Tatum.
Jones is going to be a senior next year which means he does not have time to fix his in deficiencies. Besides the kid does what the coaches' ask him to do otherwise he wouldn't be playing. Guard the opposing teams best perimeter threat and hit open jumpers. How many times did you hear Tyler Dorsey's named called last night and he made shots. If every other Dukie on this team paid attention to detail and played defense with consistent effort Duke will still be playing right now. Everyone talks about offense and shooting but scoring was not Duke's problem last night or this year. Rebounding and playing good sound defense, a lot of which went away after Jefferson injury. Last year what made Duke great was Jones and Cook taking opposing teams' wings out the game like against Gonzaga, Mich. St., and Wiscy. Im certain Jones and Thornton will be the starting backcourt for Duke next year if Grayson doesn't comeback, and they will be best defensive backcourt in the country.
If Grayson does comeback, Jones will be starting with Grayson next year unless he volunteers to come off the bench the kid has earned it. Most of Duke's points will come from Tatum, Giles, Kennard, and Jackson, but Jones will still get 2 or 3 threes a night which will be all Duke needs from him. Now I'm going to watch some games from last year to get this sour taste out of my mouth. GO HOOSIERS!!!!!!!!!!!
If Grayson does comeback, Jones will be starting with Grayson next year unless he volunteers to come off the bench the kid has earned it. Most of Duke's points will come from Tatum, Giles, Kennard, and Jackson, but Jones will still get 2 or 3 threes a night which will be all Duke needs from him. Now I'm going to watch some games from last year to get this sour taste out of my mouth. GO HOOSIERS!!!!!!!!!!!
Duke won despite having to start matt not because of him. Im sorry he's an average defender and poor offensive player. He can guard smart not quick players. Grayson was below average defense. I agree, if we had 5 matts starting our defense would be better, but we'd never get a rebound and we would have the worst offense in college bball.
If matt starts all next year with no unforseen injuries to ither players, duke will not win acc, acc tournament, or ncaa tournament.
I have to really disagree with you here. I love Amile, but our team really hit its stride last season when Jones replaced him in the starting lineup. There's no way that we won it all "despite" him.
Ok so they could win another title next year with similar talent and Jones starting..,,,
I was frustrated by Matt's play in the tourney, but I like him so much as a leader and person...Sometimes I question if it was all "his ankle" because his slide did begin prior to Chapel Hill if you go back to games at Clemson and home to Notre Dame.
Perhaps hes simply tried to do much (and understandably as hes no doubt felt need to step up) as we were depth shy....In sum I think Matt becomes a MORE PRODUCTIVE PLAYER given MORE TALENT on our roster...This should bode well for next season...
OFC
Perhaps hes simply tried to do much (and understandably as hes no doubt felt need to step up) as we were depth shy....In sum I think Matt becomes a MORE PRODUCTIVE PLAYER given MORE TALENT on our roster...This should bode well for next season...
OFC
Could.... Or you could play 5 good players. To me starting matt the stars have to align to make a run at it, if we're so good he can't start we could be one of the best duke teams. The best duke teams don't always win it though, 99,02,04,11 and sometimes a good team can win it all, 10,15.
Didn't Matt tweak an ankle before the UNC game. I know I read somewhere about Matt tweaking an ankle in practice just before his play started to decline and before the really bad UNC sprain.
Last year's title is unbelievable considering how many injuries that team had.
Last year's title is unbelievable considering how many injuries that team had.
If Matt is more than a role player on next years team - we're in trouble.
I think a healthy senior Matt Jones can get the job done, especially with the players that he will be surrounded by.
Agree w/both of you...He is the perfect "role player" on a 2015 type situation as opposition IMO tends to overlook him...
OFC
Was watching last years nc game and it is evident that Matt is not moving nearly as well as he did last year,so I really believe that his injuries are much worse than has been reported.He will never be a star but I really believe that we will see a much improved player next year
I think you could argue that several players on this year's team - DT, MJ, LK, CJ - were asked to do more than they realistically could. For me the biggest disappointment this year was that from early Jan through the S16, these 4 seemed to not improve or even regressed, and this was likely from being asked to do too much too soon while being physically exhausted.
If everyone stays healthy and we get at least of one of Grayson or Bolden, I expect a F4 team next year. For what little it's worth, I think Grayson comes back but we miss on Bolden. And after reading some of K's recent comments about the graduate transfer rule, I wouldn't expect we'd take that route to get more depth.
If everyone stays healthy and we get at least of one of Grayson or Bolden, I expect a F4 team next year. For what little it's worth, I think Grayson comes back but we miss on Bolden. And after reading some of K's recent comments about the graduate transfer rule, I wouldn't expect we'd take that route to get more depth.