Around the Perimeter: How will new-look lineup fare?
Gone is All-Star Chris Jones. In is three-point threat Ryan Taylor. Point guard Jaylon Tate has been great, but he may need to be greater for Lightning down the stretch. This and much more from columnist Jason Winders …
Jaylon Tate is averaging 12.9 points (47.3% shooting) and 6 assists in his 17 games this year heading into action this weekend. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).
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STARTING FIVE
1. Life without Chris Jones. Friday will be a new-look lineup for the Lightning, as it will be the first game of the post-Chris Jones Era. It’s not an understatement to say that this is the most significant loss for the team this season. You don’t lose an All-Star point guard and not feel it.
So, what have they lost in losing their floor general?
One of only two players to play 500 minutes so far this season (587), Jones was third on the team in points with 270, behind only centre Amir Williams (272) and forward Cameron Forte (323). That loss looks like it would hurt – and it does. But you also need to realize that Jones shot – a lot.
When Lightning head coach Doug Plumb joked about Jones being a “volume shooter” all those years ago, he wasn’t far off. Of Bolts players with at least 100 attempts from the field this season, Jones took the most shots (243), but was seventh in shooting percentage (41.2). Compare that to Forte, who has taken the second-most shots on the team (215) but leads the team in shooting percentage at 67.0%. Or compare Jones to fellow guard Jermaine Haley Jr. who is shooting 61.3%.
The trend holds even when you look at players who have taken a minimum of 25 3-pointers. Although Jones took the second-most 3s on the team (98), he was only fourth in shooting percentage beyond the arc (30.6%), behind Haley (42.1%), guard Jaylon Tate (33.8%), and forward Terry Thomas (33.3%).
But while he might not have been a lights-out shooter this year, Jones was a playmaker, second on the team in assists (79) behind Tate (102).
On defense, Jones was a vocal leader, who led the team in steals (35), and led guards in defensive rebounds (85).
Plumb has explained that Jones has intentionally sidelined his own stats this season in favour of setting up teammates. That means the team may be able to cobble together the players necessary to cover Jones’s numbers for the rest of the season, but the biggest gap Jones leaves behind might not be as easy to fill.
Point guards are the engine of a team; veterans are the fuel that keep things moving forward. Jones was both.
Listen to rookie guard Josiah Mastandrea: “It’s a huge loss for us. He was one of our leaders, one of our better players, obviously, but his biggest thing was that he was a big energy giver. He just brought energy, this crazy side to the game that we needed when the guys got down. He would just keep going and bring everybody up together.”
Even for a team built around a dominating front court, and killer transition game, the pressure is now on the remaining Lightning guards. Jaylon Tate has been outstanding. Newcomer Ryan Taylor is going to add an outside threat. But the backcourt is going to be dribbling uphill for the rest of the season.
2. Guarded optimism. OK, it’s not every day your chief rival adds a former MVP down the stretch, but that’s exactly what happened with the Sudbury Five this week.
On April 19, The Five activated guard Braylon Rayson, who had been playing in Latvian-Estonian and Turkey this year before returning to the team where he starred for two seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2018-19 season, Rayson led NBL Canada in scoring with 24.2 points per game. He set a record for regular season 3-pointers with 149. He was named NBL Canada MVP after that season.
In 2019-20, Rayson averaged 22.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game in the pandemic-shortened season. In his last three games in the NBL Canada, Rayson averaged 35.6 points and 6.7 assists per game, including a 49-point performance against the Lightning.
As London’s backcourt was thrown into question, The Five added an MVP to an already impressive three-headed backcourt of Jaylen Brand (23.3 PPG), All-Star Jeremy Harris (20.3 PPG), and All-Star Dexter Williams Jr. (17.1 PPG). On Wednesday night, Bland and Rayson combined for 73 points in the former MVP’s return. Bland put up 47 points with 11 three-pointers; Rayson finished with 26 points and 7 assists. Yikes.
The Bolts are 3-1 against The Five this season, but 1-1 in their last two games, including a 118-110 loss heading into the All-Star Weekend.
3. Taking care of his guys. Probably not a coincidence Lightning head coach Doug Plumb played his guys the fewest minutes of anyone in Saturday night’s All-Star Game. Amir Williams netted 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 15 minutes. His most exciting run came when he threw down three straight dunks early in the third quarter. Jermaine Haley Jr. did not score, taking only one shot in just under 11 minutes. He also pulled out of the slam dunk contest. Plumb’s team is banged up and tired (including his All-Stars) and could use the down time before returning to action Friday night.
4. Party in the U.S.A. The All-Star Game announcing crew mistakenly mentioned that all members of the NBL Canada squad were American born. Besides being a somewhat ignorant comment that ignores the international flavour of the game everywhere else on the planet, it was also wrong. Fact is, two members of the 11-man Canadian league squad were born in Canada (Marcus Anderson of the Windsor Express and Jermaine Haley Jr. of the London Lightning).
Of course, a Canadian league roster of nine Americans made the crowd’s weird late-game chants of “USA! USA!” all the odder, but then again, as my countrymen have proven in recent years, research isn’t exactly their strong suit.
In case you are wondering, the Lightning have six Canadian-born players on the 12-man roster: Jermaine Haley Jr. (Vancouver, BC), Jordan Jensen-Whyte (Calgary, AB), Abednego Lufile (Burlington, Ont.), Josiah Mastandrea (Port Coquitlam, BC), Marcus Ottey (Ajax, ON), and Terry Thomas (East Preston, NS),
Amir Williams at the inaugural NBLC-TBL All-Star Game April 16 in Syracuse, NY. The TBL came out on top, 155-150. (Photo: Dan Congdon).
5. Canadian quiz. Lightning social media had a bit of fun quizzing American-born Lightning standouts Jaylon Tate (Chicago), Lance Adams (Flint), and Amir Williams (Detroit) about Canadian facts, trivia, and snacks. Now, as an American, I can tell you that we don’t exactly spend a lot of time in school studying Canada, and as a recent expat-turned-Canadian citizen, I can tell you one of these questions would have tripped me up if it appeared on my citizenship test. But, honestly, do you know the largest single-day parade in Canada? The best part is when they put Canadian snacks to American taste buds – and I cannot say how much I agree with Amir on the gross nature of ketchup chips. Watch and enjoy.
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LIGHTNING NOTES
Ryan Taylor was signed and activated on April 18. … Cameron Forte (bereavement) was placed on Injured Reserve (IR) on April 18. … Forte, Jermaine Haley, and Marcus Ottey were activated from IR on April 14. Terry Thomas (illness) and Mareik Isom (lower back strain) were both placed on IR on April 14 and April 12, respectively. … You’re a winner – barely – if you took the under at O/U 315 for the NBL Canada-TBL All-Star Game. ... The Lightning magic number sits at two to clinch the regular season league title heading into play Friday.
BEYOND MY BYLINE
OK, Boomer, here’s a really cool piece from the New Yorker on how treating age cohorts like cultural units is more confusing than clarifying. Having just flexed my Gen X street cred by finishing Chuck Klosterman’s new book, The Nineties, this piece really sucked me in.
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