September 5, 2024
How an even better Jonquel Jones emerged from her 2023 challenges
Sabrina Ionescu: 'We're not winning without JJ. And I think she understands that'
NEW YORK — Almost a year ago, Jonquel Jones was sitting at an L-shaped table inside the Barclays Center practice courts feeling a sense of doubt. She was about to sign autographs and meet fans following the final game of the regular season where her New York Liberty team, which she joined at the beginning of the season, had just finished its best regular season in franchise history. A long playoff run was on the horizon.
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She was thinking about how these new fans viewed her during a season when she stopped playing like herself. She was insecure in the season she produced that began with rehabbing from a foot injury and learning a whole new playbook and philosophy of playing the game. Although she averaged nearly a double-double —11.3 points and 8.4 rebounds — in her first season for the Liberty, she wanted to play much better for them, the Liberty fans. It’s a group of people who have similar hopes and dreams that the 30-year-old center from the Bahamas has herself: to win a WNBA championship.
While New York was the place she wanted to go after the Connecticut Sun, her team of six years, traded her upon her request, would it be the place where she’d stay? She didn’t earn that clarity until that evening signing autographs for fans.
“I was just like, there’s no way I’m not coming back to New York,” Jones said on May 4, just over a week before the start of the 2024 regular season. “We’re building something special already. I love my teammates, but I felt like I didn’t know what the fans thought and then just to hear them just constantly just build me up and just pour their love into me, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m coming back to New York.’”
But once Jones officially signed her contract to return to the Liberty following a heartbreaking Game 4 loss to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals, she had sights on “getting back into MVP-type JJ movements” in her second season in New York. She wanted to drive downhill, use her deceptive quickness and play both on and off the ball.
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Jones’ story in New York often mirrors that of the team she’s now playing for. There were such high expectations for the 2023 newly-constructed Liberty, and she too had really high expectations for herself. Even when Jones won the Commissioner’s Cup MVP and was praised as the Liberty’s “best player” in the postseason by head coach Sandy Brondello, Jones still got down on herself. The Liberty and Jones knew that their performance in the Finals was far short of their best, and that for a team with so much skill, there was more work to do.
“But now for us to be able to do what we want to do, now our chemistry has to be better,” she said back in May. “And I think some of the other things like knowing where to be on offense and defense and different things like that, that just comes with time. And that’s what we didn’t have last year. So you should see a different New York Liberty team this year, and we’re definitely holding ourselves to a higher standard.”
A different New York Liberty team this year has also meant a different Jones.
The road to becoming ‘MVP-type JJ’ in New York
After the 2023 regular season and playoffs, the Liberty’s head coach Brondello reflected upon how the Liberty could be even better in 2024 and finally accomplish the franchise’s elusive first WNBA title. She realized that her offense had to reflect the versatile talents of her stars, and how that directly impacted Jones. While she doesn’t think the offense has had a 360 makeover in 2024, she did admit to there being some slight changes.
“We do have a few more open side pick-and-rolls, where she can short roll and hop and then play out of it,” Brondello said at a team practice on Wednesday.
In 2024, using all of what makes Jones a special basketball player is at the center of the Liberty’s identity. “Her facilitating allows us to expand how we want to play,” Brondello said.
It’s been intentional that Jones has begun offensive sets on the perimeter, and that she’s gotten more isolation plays at the nail and the slot. This was all part of the conversation that Brondello had with Jones coming into this season.
Brondello continued: “What I remember talking [to Jones] about is you can do more, and that was part of it. Put the ball in your hands a little bit more, a little bit more facilitating, playing to your strengths. Last year was getting comfortable. She did what she needed to do, but how do we get better and that was part of us getting better, about her getting more touches and putting her in more face to the basket, shooting threes, but creating second side action as well.”
Being ready to pass, short rolling, mid range shots and just drilling down her three ball were all skills that Jones paid a little bit more attention to while she was overseas in China during the WNBA off-season. But a central focus for Jones was making sure she was aware of her tendency to over-penetrate, something that often leads to double and sometimes triple teams in the post.
“You see teams, they’re really coming and they’re trying to meet me really low close to the basket,” Jones said. “So short rolls, midrange shots, I think it’s an area that’s wide open for me, and sometimes I gotta stop over-penetrating and just take the simple shot.”
Inside the best passing year of her career
Jones has always been an above-average passer, and it was 2021, her MVP season without point forward Alyssa Thomas for the majority of the year, when the world could see that fact clearly. For then-head coach Curt Miller’s 2021 Sun team Jones averaged 2.8 assists per game and had an assist percentage of 17.6 %. Those numbers have ballooned to 3.3 and 18.3% this season, the highest numbers in her career.
According to Second Spectrum data, Jones has generated a 57.83 qSP (Shot Quality adjusted for the specific shooter) for teammates on her passes and potential assists this season. Essentially, how open are her teammates when she finds them? That metric is the fourth highest among all WNBA players in 2024. She trails Caitlin Clark, Chelsea Gray and Marina Mabrey. A 6’6 center trails a trio of guards.
But it’s not just the fact that Jones is passing the ball, it’s more how she’s passing the ball that has added an extra spark to an already incredibly unique skill set. She’s whipped out behind-the-back passes, no-look passes and dump downs. This was something that didn’t often pop up in Connecticut and that was for good reason.
“Sandy’s letting her throw behind-the-back passes, and I didn’t,” Miller, who now coaches the LA Sparks said.
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This ability didn’t come out of nowhere. She’s always had a propensity for this, but it just wasn’t encouraged. On a new team, Jones pulled it back out of her pocket, and her teammates and coaches noticed it in practice even before it made its grand debut last July against the Caitlin Clark-less Fever. It was a behind-the-back pass to a cutting Courtney Vandersloot for the wide open layup. When Jones was asked about that pass postgame, teammate Sabrina Ionescu chimed in: “JJ’s a great passer. Don’t let her fool you.”
Vandersloot, one of the greatest passers the WNBA has ever seen, has viewed Jones’ journey to being a better facilitator up close. She remembers watching Jones test out crafty passes when the two played together in Russia during WNBA off-seasons. Vandersloot has noticed the work Jones has put into making the passes more “catchable.”
“Now she has it down,” Vandersloot told The Next. “I think she’s reading the game better. It’s about that — it’s about when to pass it, when not to pass it. But she’s always had these. The behind-the-back might be new, but it’s comfortable, and she does it and it works.”
Comfortable. That’s exactly why Jones does it. Sure, it provides some flare and allows her to have fun, but she explained to a group of reporters why the no-look behind the back pass is something she feels so comfortable doing and tactically it makes sense against opposing defenses. There wasn’t another pro basketball player who she necessarily took the behind the back pass from. It came to her via learning the game initially as a guard growing up and through her mentor Diane Richardson.
“And when it’s open, and sometimes it’s the best way there because you have someone that’s like in front of you and they’re not behind you, so you make the pass,” Jones said about how convenient throwing a pass behind her back has become.
As of now, she leads all WNBA players this year with 67 no-look passes and 12 no-look assists, according to Second Spectrum. No other player has recorded more than 10 no-look assists this season.
Confidence in her role and her value in New York
Jones’ success shouldn’t just be tied to her career year in assists. In 2024 she has the second highest effective field goal percentage (61%) in the league for players who play at least 25 minutes. She’s shooting 38.1% from three, also the highest percentage of her career. And she has the most win shares since her MVP season with 5.1 this season versus 6.1 back in 2021.
The type and variety of those stats are what Jones meant by “MVP-type JJ.” She was very intentional about that word selection especially since this year’s race has been for the most part a one horse race with A’ja Wilson putting up numbers this league has never seen. Wilson is by far the most outstanding player this season, but Jones’ value to the Liberty in 2024 ought not be undersold.
“She does so much for us other than just scoring and being a post presence,” Sabrina Ionescu said about Jones after the Liberty defeated Wilson’s Aces 79-67 on Aug. 17.
That night Jones almost put up a triple-double: 10 points on a less efficient shooting night, 17 rebounds and 8 assists. According to both assistants Olaf Lange and Roneeka Hodges, the jump in Jones’ game comes from not only familiarity and full health, but from her confidence and adaptability.
Not all superstars can adapt like Jones, and that’s the bedrock of her role in New York after one year of searching. “We’re not winning without JJ,” Ioenscu said days later. “And I think she understands that, and being able to see her poise and growth in that position has helped us win a lot of games.”
Jones’ role and value to her team on the court is much clearer than it was a year ago. But also, Jones’ public profile in Brooklyn and in the greater New York City area is rising. While Jones continues to deal with the issues that come with spending the majority of her career in the smallest WNBA market in America (Connecticut) and media coverage that doesn’t favor a Black, queer, masculine-presenting woman from the Bahamas, being in the media and culture capital of the world has begun to allow the status quo to course correct.
She now has her first player exclusive shoe via Nike, the KD17 x Jonquel Jones, an announcement she made during WNBA All-Star Weekend this past July. The sneaker is inspired by and features the colors of the Bahamian national flag: aquamarine and gold. On Labor Day she made an appearance representing her culture at the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, an experience that made her feel proud of her Caribbean culture.
Also, on Thursday night, the Liberty will be celebrating its second annual West Indian Night during a home game against the Seattle Storm. The team began honoring New York City’s West Indian and Caribbean communities upon Jones’ arrival to the franchise.
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But the most true sign of Jones’ ascent into being a name in New York’s sports scene is how a packed Barclays Center embraces its 6’6 do-it-all center. When Jones appeared on the court in front of season ticket holders before the start of the 2024 regular season, the most loyal Liberty fans gave her a louder ovation than any of the Liberty’s other stars on roster. One fan notably screamed: “It’s JJ!” — the same type of exclamation that any movie star on a red carpet receives.
During the 2024 regular season, whenever anywhere from 12,000 to 17,000 fans watch Jones check out of a game and head to the bench and take a breather, the crowd reminds her of that autograph signing session from last September. The tidal wave of sound for Jones is symbolic of how much she means to all of them.
Now, there is no doubt.
Written by Jackie Powell
Jackie Powell covers the New York Liberty and runs social media and engagement strategy for The Next. She also has covered women's basketball for Bleacher Report and her work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Harper's Bazaar and SLAM. She also self identifies as a Lady Gaga stan, is a connoisseur of pop music and is a mental health advocate.
