DALLAS — When the Dallas Mavericks faced the Chicago Bulls in their 114-105 victory on Wednesday, it marked the first time Derrick Jones Jr. faced his former team since departing in free agency. He finished with 17 points and five rebounds in 31 minutes.
After playing 81 games as teammates with Jones during the two seasons they were teammates, Caruso had nothing but positive things to say about him. Caruso highlighted the value he provides on defense and rebounding, along with being a great locker-room presence.
"A lot of fun, good teammate," Caruso told DallasBasketball.com. "Everyone knows his reputation; he's super athletic, but I think he was a really good defender, really good rebounder offensive rebounder for us. Then, as a teammate, just a great guy, never had anything, anything negative to say about him, for sure."
Jones is off to a strong start shooting from 3 this season, an area that has not been his strength throughout his NBA career. The progression seems to carry over from the career-best 34.0 percent clip he shot last season with the Bulls. He's shooting 36.8 percent entering Friday's matchup against the Denver Nuggets. What did Caruso see from Jones that contributed to that success?
"He's just professional, man. He was working," Caruso said. That's that's all it comes down to. You put the time in, put the reps in, and are confident enough to do it when it shows up in the game, and it looks like he is."
Given Caruso's impact as one of the NBA's elite on-ball defenders, it's hard to converse with him without asking about the difficulties of guarding talents like Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
"They're some best players ever play the game of basketball," Caruso said of Doncic and Irving. "It's about just making it tough for them, understanding that you can play your best defense, and then they're still going to score sometimes. Just keeping that mentality of making them earn each possession on the court."
The Mavs continue to entrust Jones with a starting role on the wing next to Doncic and Irving. He's provided an impressive impact defensively, and his overall contributions offensively have been elevated with his shooting execution.
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