James Jones' Heat revival as simple as a flick of the wrist

James Jones' life can be as simple as a flick of a wrist.

Or as difficult.

These days, it's all a snap, and that has the Miami Heat forward in a good place, a place he hasn't been for years.

"I feel," he says with a warm smile, "like I'm finally back."

He looks that way, too, especially coming off Wednesday's exhibition performance against the New Orleans Hornets, when he converted 5 of 11 3-point shots.

While Jones' free-agent signing in the 2008 offseason was considered a homecoming for the University of Miami product and Southwest Ranches resident, only now does Jones feel like he has arrived.

No sooner did James report for camp in 2008, then a ruptured tendon in his right wrist required surgery that would sideline him until midseason. While he made it back to the starting lineup for the 2009 playoffs, he was not nearly the same player Pat Riley had coveted as his prime 2008 free-agent target.

Last season, it was more of the same, as James' role was reduced to afterthought, reduced to contemplating that, at 29, it might be over, spirit still willing, but wrist balking.

"I was pretty much a couple of minutes from my career being done because of my wrist," he says during a moment of locker-room reflection. "It's a major surgery; it's a major injury for a shooter. I was on the brink of not being able to do what I do for a living."

By the end of last season, the wrist again proved willing. By then, it was too late to reestablish a rhythm. But it wasn't too late for hope.

"It was near the end of last year, near the playoffs, that I finally felt I had a chance," he says. "I had been pretty much rationing myself to make sure I didn't shoot too much to inflame it or irritate it."

With no guarantees about where Jones' career was headed, the Heat exercised a buyout on the 6-foot-8 forward in late June. In early July, Jones was re-signed to the veteran's minimum.

That Jones is now 12 of 31 on 3-pointers this preseason might be a surprise to some, considering Jones converted 37 all of last season and just 33 in his first season with the Heat. But to Jones, there now is a will -- and a way.

"I can shoot from range. I can shoot all day," he says. "I don't feel any stiffness, I don't feel any achiness. None of that stuff. It's one of those things where I can just go out every day and really hammer this sucker and go home and feel good."

To some, the exhibition schedule already has been a grind, what with Dwyane Wade to miss additional time with a strained right hamstring, and with the team hoping to get LeBron James, Carlos Arroyo, Mario Chalmers and Jamaal Magloire back on the practice court Friday after injury timeouts.

To Jones, who turned 30 last week, the preseason has been positively reinvigorating.

"Even though it's the preseason, it might not mean anything to anybody else, it means a lot to me," he says.

Last season, Jones would limit his shooting sessions to about 75 3-point attempts. Now he is putting up 200 to 250 per session.

And he's experiencing shoulder pain, which actually is a good thing.

"Instead of my wrist getting tired, my shoulder can get tired," he says, a logic only a shooter coming back from wrist surgery can appreciate. "That's was the difference. Last year, my wrist would get tired before my shoulder could even start to fatigue."

While the time with Wade and James has been limited, due to their respective hamstring woes, there has been enough opportunity to appreciate the possibilities on such a talented roster.

"These guys, although they're extraordinary players, they're smart basketball players," Jones says of being able to get the right shots at the right spots. "I'm able to enjoy the game again."



(sun-sentinel.com)