Duke freshman point guard Tyus Jones is “proceeding toward plans” to declare for this year’s draft and is setting up meetings with agents, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM. Jones is No. 21 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and No. 24 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com. The Minnesota native, who turns 19 next month, told Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune on Wednesday that he hadn’t made up his mind about leaving school, fresh off his Most Outstanding Player award-winning performance in the Final Four. NBA personnel recently told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com that Jones’ stock doesn’t stand to climb much higher than it already is, making the case that he should declare this year.
The 6’1″ Jones has averaged 11.8 points in 33.9 minutes per game this season, but he’s been most impressive with his skills as a pure point guard, juxtaposing 5.6 assists against 1.9 turnovers per contest. He’s also displayed a decent outside touch, hitting 37.9% of his three-pointers for the season, though he could stand to work on his perimeter shooting, as Eddie Scarito wrote as he ranked him 20th in the latest Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Power Rankings.
The Pistons, Pelicans, Sixers, Magic and Rockets have paid particularly close attention to Jones, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities has reported. Jones breaks the mold of recent highly regarded NBA prospects from Duke, almost of whom have played other positions. Fellow point guard Kyrie Irving came from Duke, but he saw action in only 11 games in his lone season as a Blue Devil.