Tyus Jones is headed back to the Nuggets on a one-year contract, giving Denver a familiar backup point guard behind Jamal Murray. Shams Charania of reported the agreement, which comes as the Nuggets fill a roster opening at the position.
The move matters now because Denver needed help there after declining Jalen Pickett’s option, and Jones is expected to step into that role. The contract is likely to be a veteran’s minimum deal for a cap-strapped team, with the exact terms still not public.
Jones, the 24th overall pick in the 2015 draft, has built a long NBA career on steady ballhandling and efficiency. He spent his first four seasons in Minnesota and then four years with Memphis before moving through Orlando, Dallas and Denver this past season.
That path makes the fit easy to see, but his most recent numbers also explain why the deal is not a splashy one. Jones made 67 total appearances this past season, averaged 14.6 minutes and put up 3.0 points, 2.4 assists and 1.1 rebounds while shooting.349 from the field and.292 from three-point range.
He did give Denver something in the postseason. Jones made three playoff appearances with the Nuggets, and David Adelman liked what he brought to the table there, even if the team was eliminated by the Wolves in six games.
There is still a layer of uncertainty around the contract itself. The report says the deal could be partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed, which would let Denver keep flexibility while adding a guard who has led the league in assist-to-turnover ratio multiple times.
If Jones did land the minimum salary as expected, he would make about $3.88 million next season while the Nuggets would carry a $2.45 million cap hit. That is the sort of number that tells you what this is: a low-cost bet on a player the team already knows, with the final paperwork still the last thing to be sorted out.
