He was out of games on his two-way contract, in danger of not returning to the Nuggets, but thanks to their salary dump and deadline deal of Hunter Tyson, Spencer Jones has been added to the roster on a standard NBA contract. Jones, who has started 34 games for a depleted Nuggets squad this season, can finally make the update to his LinkedIn profile that he's been waiting for!
Unfortunately, he will likely have to wait a bit longer to take the floor under his new contract than he, the team, and fans would like. Jones likely suffered a concussion when he collided with New York Knick Karl-Anthony Towns early on in the double-OT loss. Their heads came together and left both players injured; however, KAT was able to get patched up and return, while Jones never came back out from the locker room after leaving the floor with a noticeable shiner on his forehead.
No further updates have been provided, but you would expect Jones to enter the concussion protocol and miss a few games while recovering. Chalk another one up for the Nuggets! They can't seem to catch a break.
Jones supplies more depth to an already deep bench
While Jones has made all those starts for the Nuggets, he has been doing so because the Nuggets have had so many problems with injuries this season. But he may get to keep playing with the first unit even when Cameron Johnson returns because Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson are both out indefinitely with hamstring injuries.
We've all seen the bench step up this season. Amassing court time in high-pressure situations and coming out with a win multiple times while Nikola Jokic was out with an injury just made them all so much better off for David Adelman when the games really count in the playoffs.
I've mentioned that Adelman's been a wizard with his rotations this season. His basketball genius has proved to be crucial in keeping the Nuggets near the top of the West standings. He'll have to keep on adjusting a bit longer while the team returns to full strength.
The saving grace for the Nuggets and keeping me out of panic mode is the fact that all the injuries have a time frame for the players to return before the start of the playoffs, when the games really count. And when they do start to count, we may just be rewarded with a deep run into June.