Duke Basketball: Duke needs Tre Jones to be more effective offensively

After a nail-bitting win against UCF, the Duke Basketball team is still dancing, but the Blue Devils need some players to be more effective on offense.

Duke is lucky to still be alive after just barely squeaking by UCF in the Round of 32 this past Sunday. If Duke wishes to stay alive, they are going to need a lot more offensively from point guard Tre Jones.

UCF used a triangle and two defense that focused mostly on Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett. With this, the Knight’s defense was able to switch Tacko Fall onto Jones after a ball screen and he practically dared Jones to shoot every time he got the ball beyond the three-point line.

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Jones was hesitant to drive against the 7-foot-6 Fall, and ended up settling for the shots he was being allowed to shoot. He would end the game 1-of-8 from 3-point range and is now shooting 23.2% from beyond the arc on the season.

For Jones to be effective on offense, he has to be more aggressive and drive to the basket more often. On the season, he is shooting 63.4% on shots at the rim — around the same percentage as Barrett, according barttorvik.com.

We saw Jones do this in the ACC Championship game against Florida State. He was aggressive driving to the hoop and ended with a career high 18 points in his best game as a Blue Devil.

As you see, Jones was really aggressive in this game. Seven of his eight field goals came after he drove to the hoop, going all the way to the rim or pulling up for a jump shot.

When he’s doing this, it forces the defense to put more pressure on him and this opens up the entire offense because of the space it creates for Williamson and Barrett. We have often seen Jones’ defender leave him unguarded when he’s off the ball and this has created a spacing problem on the floor. So, he has to show that he is willing to drive to the hoop.

Jones has become a dependable free throw shooter — 76.7% on the season after a rough start — so if he can get to the rim and draw a foul, that’s a plus for Duke. And if he does drive and nothing is there, he always has the option of lobbing it up to Williamson or one of the other bigs, or kicking it out to an open shooter.

Jones is one of the few players who should be settling for long 2-pointers rather than a 3-pointer, as it’s going to create just as many points per attempt as a three will. The freshman is shooting 35% percent on 2-pointers that aren’t at the rim and although that’s not great, it seems to be the better way for him to get his points.

A pull up mid-range jump shot has been Jones best option other than a shot at the rim this season. He has struggled with catch and shoot jumpers even though about 66% of them have been unguarded. Jones has scored just 45 points on 50 catch and shoot jump shots this season, according to Synergy Sports.

With UCF exposing Jones’ biggest weakness (even though many already knew), we may see more teams do what UCF did the rest of the tournament, so Jones is either going to need to knock down those wide open shots that he’s going to be allowed to take, or he’s going to need to drive to the hoop where he’s been more effective this season.

Duke will face-off with Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16 on Friday at 9:39pm ET from the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.

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