[Chron] Ex-UH star Jones finally at home with the Heat

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Ex-UH star Jones finally at home with the Heat
By MEGAN MANFULL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

When Damon Jones left the University of Houston early to play in the NBA, he never expected to spend most of his first five seasons sitting.

He bounced from team to team as one opportunity after another seemed to pass.

Jones' frustration mounted, but he never wavered in his belief that he could make an impact in the NBA.

Finally, Jones started to make a name for himself last season in Milwaukee (his 10th NBA stop). A year later, he has landed the job any point guard would love.

"I'm the starting point guard for the Beatles, and it has been excellent," Jones said with a laugh.

Alongside All-Stars Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, Jones has helped lead the Miami Heat to an NBA-best 52-16 record. Now, instead of being referred to as a journeyman, he has emerged into a quality point guard and one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA.

Jones, 28, still won't be the main attraction tonight when Miami makes its only appearance of the season in Houston, but that's not his goal anyway.

"Winning. That's (all that matters)," said Jones, who is averaging a career-high 11.4 points per game along with 2.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists. "That's been my goal since I came into this league. I've wanted to be a winner. I'm not here to lead the league in scoring or lead the league in assists. I'm here to contribute the best I can from my position, play my role to help this basketball team win. And that's been the best part of this whole year."

Jones, who signed with Miami as a free agent in August, took over the starting job on Dec. 6, the same day the Heat began a 14-game winning streak. He has started 50 consecutive games, and Miami has lost only nine of them.

For Jones, this is exactly the type of season he dreamed of when he left UH in 1997.

"It's been a work in progress," he said. "I wish I would have matured a lot faster and it wouldn't have to come to me being in my sixth season — last year — to where I fully developed as a true point guard.

"I've evolved in a lot of different areas as far as a basketball player, as well as a person. I've just learned a lot, and I appreciate my experiences, because when I step out on that basketball floor, there is no pressure there because I've seen everything."

Staying with it
Jones played in the Continental Basketball Association and United States Basketball League before getting his first chance in the NBA in 1999. Since then, he has played in regular-season games for nine NBA teams. He also had a '99 stint with Orlando in which he saw no action and was with the Rockets in October 2001 before being cut.

It's those experiences that have helped Jones become not only a contributor but a team leader this season. He has forged a strong relationship with O'Neal. The two often put in extra time together on the court, and they also take primary responsibility for keeping the locker room loose. Jones says he is the funnier of the two.

"I'm the best looking also, I might add," Jones said. "But he gets a lot of compliments because he's bigger than I am, and most of the women in the world like big guys."

There is little for Jones not to joke about these days. The seasons full of frustration have been replaced by elation.

The turning point for Jones came soon after he left the Rockets. He was signed before 2001 training camp to fill in for Moochie Norris, who was holding out in a contract dispute. When Norris returned, Jones was waived. The move devastated Jones, who at the time had been in the league less than three years and had already worn seven uniforms.

But Jones landed in Detroit that season and finished the year with the Pistons. He came off the bench and finally started to see progress in his game. For the first time since joining the NBA, Jones really started to believe he would make it.

"I've been blessed with a lot of different talents. Patience wasn't one of them," he said. "Early on, I was a mess.

"But so many doors have been opened for me throughout my career. Even when I didn't play much, I still got another chance the next season to go out and prove myself. So I'm just thankful for the continuous chances that I was able to get to this point."

Showing he can play
Jones, who will be a free agent this summer, had a breakthrough season in Milwaukee last year, which helped him land the dream job in Miami. He is hitting 42 percent of his shots from 3-point range, is third in the NBA in 3-point baskets (184) and ranks fifth in assists per turnover (3.56).

Despite so many moves and changes, Houston continues to be a special place for Jones. He loves to see his family and friends, and he revels in playing against the hometown team he never really got to play for.

"It's good to come home and let everyone know what they are missing," Jones said. "I have a lot of fans in the Houston area. Everyone's just in support of a guy who had to work his tail off to get everything he's accomplished."

megan.manfull@chron.com
Rockets Summary

Not so fast

Searching for the change between the Rockets who swept a four-game road trip in a six-game winning streak and the Rockets who lost badly to the Celtics and Timberwolves since, coach Jeff Van Gundy suggested his team was run over by the bandwagon.

"I really like our team, but I don't think there is any doubt, with all the hype, everyone's jumping on the bandwagon, we bought in," Van Gundy said. "Our guys believe they have qualified for the playoffs. If you ask them, which I have, they believe that they're in.

"As a coach, you never take anything for granted. And even if they think they're in, which I would dispute, their goal should be not to ease in but to try to move up, because home-court advantage is very important."

The Rockets were not sure if the talk of contending for a championship had stolen their attention from the month of games remaining before the playoffs. But whether looking ahead to the postseason or back to the success of their winning streak, it had become clear they had lost sight of the games at hand.

"I don't know if on the whole team everybody was buying into that," Tracy McGrady said of the championship-contention talk. "I don't think so. People were picking us to win the whole thing, and we had been playing great basketball, but I really don't know.

"It probably seems that way because we're on a drought now. But I don't think so, because almost no one here won a championship. There are guys in here that have not been to the playoffs. So I don't think it's that."

Said guard David Wesley: "Maybe we lost a little focus. We have to find a way to get it back."

Offensive questions
Asked what had happened to the Rockets' prolific offense, Tracy McGrady was stumped. But he did have a few solutions.

""It seems like we're doing a good job moving the ball," McGrady said. "Shots just are not falling. I think what we have to do, we have to get Yao (Ming) more involved in the offense. There is no way he should be shooting the ball nine times. I think over the last four games, he's probably had the fourth-most shots on our team. That has to change."

As for the Rockets' leading scorer, McGrady said: "I'm kind of in a rut, but I will get out of it. Four-of-22 (against Minnesota) won't cut it."

Yao did not necessarily agree that the Rockets' problem, at least on Sunday, was his lack of shots.

In the past five games, he has averaged 8.4 shots per game. The Rockets won the first three, and he averaged 14 free throws in the latter two.

"I had nine shots, but I had 16 free throws," Yao said of Sunday's loss. "That's another eight shots. I missed too many free throws."

Even with their late run, the Rockets made just 35.2 percent of their shots Sunday. But coach Jeff Van Gundy did not question the team's shot selection.

"I didn't have a problem with our shots as much as our lack of commitment to defense and rebounding," Van Gundy said. "I mean, at halftime, our three big guys who played significant minutes — ( Scott) Padgett, ( Clarence) Weatherspoon and Yao — each had one rebound. You're not winning like that."

Weatherspoon got one rebound in the second half, Yao four. Padgett did not get a rebound in two second-half minutes.

JONATHAN FEIGEN