2022–23 Chicago Bulls Player Reviews: Derrick Jones Jr.
The versatile forward was solid in the Bulls small-ball lineups.
Derrick Jones Jr. wrapped up his second season in Chicago and although he took on a smaller role this year, he was still a key factor in the limited success of Billy Donovan’s “small-ball” lineups. Specifically, the lineup of Coby White-Ayo Dosunmu-DeMar DeRozan-Patrick Williams-Jones had a +5.7 Net Rating albeit in an extremely small sample size.
Jones is a great cutter and when he combined that with his impressive leaping ability, it allowed him to make some impressive finishes in the paint. Jones has never been a knockdown 3-point shooter at any point in his career but he has shown that he isn’t scared to occasionally fire away when we left wide-open.
Defensively, Jones was always ready for a multitude of assignments and never complained about a lack of overall playing time. He did deal with some injuries this season but still managed to play a total of 64 games, a career-high mark for Jones.
Key 2022–23 Stats: 5.0 PPG — 2.4 RPG — 33.8% 3-PT
OFFENSE: Jones is a very modern NBA forward in the sense that he doesn’t have much of an in-between/midrange game, but it doesn’t stop him from finding ways to contribute on offense.
The high-flying Jones is an effective slasher, though he did see his field goal percentage in the restricted area dip a bit (62% in 2022–23) compared to last season (67%).
Though he saw a small drop in paint efficiency, he improved his 3-point shooting accuracy to 33%.
That figure is still much too low to be a dependable shooter in the modern NBA, but a team as bad at shooting as the Bulls simply cannot complain about a currently rostered player increasing their accuracy from deep, no matter how marginal the improvement may seem.
Jones was fourth on the Bulls in screen assists and generally his pick-and-roll game meshed well with the Bulls ball handlers. It would’ve been nice to see Jones get up at least 100 3-point attempts on the year to see if his marginal improvement in shooting accuracy was realm but instead, only time will tell.
DEFENSE: Jones is mostly in Chicago for his high-energy plays on defense. He didn’t play enough to have a massive impact but when you look at his per-36 minutes numbers, it is clear Jones gave great effort.
Jones averaged 2.6 deflections per 36 minutes, which would be good for fifth on the team. He was also fourth on the Bulls in total blocks — albeit with a low total of 37 — and consistently was one of the players head coach Billy Donovan could call on to guard an effective wing scorer.
2023–24 SEASON OUTLOOK:
Jones has already stated in prior reports that he plans to pickup his roughly $3.3 million player option to return to the Bulls. He would become a free agent in 2024–25 in that case and the Bulls would hold his Bird Rights.
The 6-foot-6 Jones utilizes his 7-foot wingspan quite well when it comes to handling bigger forwards on defense. He has perhaps the most shot-blocking ability of anyone on the current Chicago roster, which made him a great fit at small-ball center against the many teams that trot out no big lineups over the course of an NBA game.
Billy Donovan leaned on Jones in many cases where he would’ve used Javonte Green — who was injured for a large chunk of the year — this season. Donovan, likely continuing his preference of speed and versatility where possible, will be happy to have Jones back in the fold. In 2023–23, I think Bulls fans can expect to see more of Jones in action and not another career-low in minutes, both because of improved play and cuts to the roster elsewhere.
