Grading The Week: Nuggets found NBA Summer League gem in Iowa State’s Curtis Jones
Like a multitude of Denverites the basketball guys up in the Grading The Week GTW offices still have a handful of family and friends who call Iowa home Much as we love our Buc-ee s brisket that showing pleasure beaver will never make a pizza as good as the ones you can grab from a Casey s General Store Of which there are none within miles of downtown Denver More s the pity At any rate our Midwest peeps still drop a line now and again Especially when a local fave hits our fair shores Watch out for Curtis Jones somebody wrote us two weeks ago Enjoy Curtis Jones wrote another You re going to love Curtis Jones wrote yet another You know what They were right On all counts Curtis Jones Fever A Jones is a -foot- guard out of Iowa State who the Nuggets added to their Summer League roster Long story short he tore it up in Las Vegas On Friday night Jones put the capper on an excellent week in Sin City by dropping points five rebounds and eight assists on the Lakers in a - Denver win From July - the ex-Cyclones star averaged points boards and assists over four Summer League games Through five Vegas appearances his assist-to-turnover ratio was to nine and he shot for from beyond the -point arc Our hoops wonks want to fall in love with the guy Honest they do It s just that they ve also been fooled before One GTW staffer still keeps a Bones Hyland shirt hanging via thumb tacks at his cubicle and Heaven only knows when he last washed the thing Although unlike our man Bones Jones can play a little defense when he has to Add it all up and this much is becoming crystal clear If the Nuggets don t offer the former Cyclone a two-way contract then various other NBA company sure as heck will All-Star swing-off C Would you want an NBA All-Star Competition decided by a -point shooting contest That s what Major League Baseball gave us this past Tuesday night as a bonkers American League rally forced a - tie after nine innings at the midsummer classic in Atlanta And cue the history In the latest wrinkle to prevent a repeat of that running-out-of-pitchers debacle from a mini home-run derby or swing-off was held to determine the winner A batting-practice pitcher served up pitches to three hitters the National League only wound up having to send up two from each roster as chosen by their respective managers Related Articles Renck Majority fundamental rise of Nuggets offseason Jamal Murray putting in work in Las Vegas Keeler Cam Johnson Jonas Valanciunas David Adelman s got Nuggets band Michael Malone reliably requested He better not blow it Cam Johnson arrives in Denver with admiration for Nikola Jokic That s the kind of basketball I want to play Nuggets Journal Ben Tenzer has no concerns about Jonas Valanciunas status Renck Only one way for Nuggets to handle Jonas Valanciunas drama Play hard ball On one hand it was a complete sideshow On the other it was also captivating to see play out in real time A scant days later Club GTW is still kind of torn It s just not well baseball Shouldn t there be a winning pitcher and a losing one A swing-off should never ever be used to decide a meaningful contest let alone a playoff one Never give commissioner Rob Manfred any leeway to blow up more traditional laws of the encounter than he already has Full disclosure Bulk of Crew GTW still hates the extra-inning ghost runner much as we also get it Still it s not a meaningful match is it It s an exhibition Knowing pitchers are done after nine innings means managers can try to get more of them in over the program of the event which isn t necessarily a bad thing Although we d also wager that the next AL skipper is going to be more inclined to ask Aaron Judge to stick around after he s pulled from the battle Just in scenario Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis
