Leading the No. 3 offense in the country really wears on you.
After entering the season as a bubble first-rounder, Tyus Jones led a successful Duke squad all the way to the national championship, earning Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors in the process. He now finds himself firmly within the first round and has transitioned almost directly from the college season into workout season, as most prospects do.
The lack of downtime may have contributed to some fatigue for the 6-foot-2 Jones, who has been pulled out of workouts "for a while" after suffering a back injury, according to ESPN's Chad Ford.
But Ford also points out that Jones was injured in a workout for the Houston Rockets, who have long been thought of as a potential landing place for Jones, the implication here being that the Rockets could have made Jones a promise at No. 18 on the condition he shut down workouts, preventing him from going higher.
The Rockets, including superstar James Harden, are on record as wanting to upgrade the playmaking on their roster. The organization also leans heavily on analytics, which grade Jones out very well as a freshman for his low-mistake, high-efficiency control of a fantastic offense.
The 19-year-old Jones is ranked as the No. 14 prospect in the draft by DraftExpress and No. 20 by Ford, and neither site has him mocked to last past the Dallas Mavericks at No. 21.
