To begin his career out of South Florida, Dominique Jones was a member of the Dallas Mavericks, and a first-round draft pick to boot. He was not, however, a successful one.
Jones was the #26 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Mavericks, with a pick bought in a straight cash transaction from the Memphis Grizzlies, back when first-round picks were buyable on the market. But he never had another contract after his rookie deal. And in fact, he never even got to the end of that. Jones was waived in March 2013, a month before the end of his third season, and would never play in the NBA again.
Even when he was in the NBA, Jones did not much play in it. In a mere 80 games across his near-three years, Jones played only 744 minutes, in large part because he only hit two three-pointers across that entire span. As a guard coming into the game right as the door began to be closed on non-shooting guards, Jones’s timing was off.
Former Mavericks Guard Enjoying Indian Summer
Since then, Jones has spent almost all of his career in China. There, though, he has been an absolute bucket for years. And although it looked as though he was finally slowing down a little bit, a bounce-back 2024-25 campaign has seen Jones post averages of 30.2 points, 10.4 assists and 8.5 rebounds per game.
At an age where almost every other player from his draft pool has retired, Jones is not only still playing; he is thriving.
Of all the big stats imports over the last few years of the Chinese Basketball Association, Jones is one of the biggest, and his output is somehow getting bigger. Whereas so many do it with the green light from three-point range, Jones, as shown in his brief NBA career, has never been a shooter. This of course did not stop him from attempting 7.3 threes per game last season, yet those have never been a strength of his, and he almost always comes in under the 30% mark from outside. Last years 31.1%, while not good, is better than usual.
Instead, Jones is the big strong ball-dominant isolation point guard, doing what he wants. And what he wants is to often throw a bunch of dribble moves to try and get into the paint. If Jones cannot get into the paint, he will take the jump shot, the streaky one that has never seemingly gotten much better. But he is a greater threat when he spurns that and gets inside the arc, spinning to the rim, taking contact and finishing with strength.
Real Ones Know
Jones enjoys the big strength advantage at the Chinese CBA level, and although he has not the quickest burst with his feet, it is a relentless attack that he puts on. He is allowed to pound the air out of the ball, posts up on smaller guys, and although he primarily a scorer, he will pass through the gaps he creates, which is quite a lot of them. Strong with body control, Jones is also similarly defensively dominant in China, a place where his lack of elite foot speed is not an issue.
From the NBA point of view, Jones’ less-than-smooth release (on which he kind of pushes up a bit) combined with not having top-tier athleticism and being right-hand dominant meant he was never was able to parlay his strength into being a reliable NBA rotation player. But in China, where he is a constant isolation possession and a one-man whirling dervish of spin moves, he is too much to handle. Ask any playing peer how hard Jones is to go up against. They know.
Jones’s career outside of China has been minimal. A couple of trips to The Basketball Tournament, and a couple of brief stints in Iran, are all he has to show outside of his Mavericks and CBA time. Eschewing the European game entirely, Jones has gone to places where he can play his style of basketball, while also getting paid handsomely for his services. It may be inefficient basketball, but it is hard to fault the results.
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