Every championship team needs a player like James Jones.
An 11-year NBA veteran and two-time champion with the Miami Heat, Jones is averaging a career low 9.9 minutes per game, and has played in only 33 of the Cleveland Cavaliers' contests this year, but when coach David Blatt has turned to his third-most tenured player, he has liked the results.
Jones came off the bench for the Cavaliers (36-22), scored six points and handed out four assists in a 102-93 come-from-behind victory over the Detroit Pistons (23-34) at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Tuesday night.
"He's a seasoned pro," Blatt said following the win in Detroit. "He's always ready. He's always there. He can play a game. He cannot play three games. He can sit a week or two, but he's going to be ready when you put him out there.
"The last three games, James has really, really given us a great deal coming off the bench. He's a leader in the locker room. He's one of our leaders in the locker room. He's a leader in how we want to approach the game, and when his number is called, he's ready to give you what he can and what he knows he needs to."
After averaging only 2.9 points per game in January, Jones has scored 30 points over the last four games, three of which have been Cavaliers' victories. And to his teammates, Jones' playing style sets an important example that reserve point guard Matthew Dellavedova has followed closely.
"Champ is great," power forward Kevin Love said of Jones. "Delly's the same way. They had a lot of big plays. Champ really stepped up, was hitting threes, rebounding the basketball, playing tough defense, and that's just what he does.
"What comes to mind about him is he's a consummate pro. Delly's the same way. He's being scrappy, getting the loose balls, 50-50 balls, and boxing out (Andre) Drummond in there. That's just the type of guy that he is, and he's very well liked and admired on this team for all the hard work that he does, and all that stuff doesn't show up in the stat sheet, but it's contagious throughout our entire lineup. Guys are doing that now because Champ and Delly do that on a nightly basis."
A veteran of multiple runs deep into the postseason, including to an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, new Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins, who signed with the club prior to Tuesday's game in Detroit, believes a player like Jones can make the difference between winning and losing a title.
"Across the board, you've got guys that play their roles, veteran guys that are on the bench," Perkins said. "James Jones, he was huge for us tonight. Champ came in and gave us some great minutes defensively. (Iman) Shumpert did some great things. Kyrie (Irving) got into the ball in the second half, did a much better job, so we've got the upside to be pretty good."
