James Jones Starts for first time in 46 Games

Feb/15/07 09:30 AM Filed in: James Jones
The Suns will started James Jones -- or "Jhoops," his latest nickname -- last night at Seattle instead of Marcus Banks, who started Sunday's loss against Chicago. Jones' first start of the season was in the spot of Boris Diaw, who was not ready to play because of lower back spasms. Jones started 24 games in his first season with the Suns last year.

There are probably two reasons for the switch:
1) Seattle is a bigger team. If Banks was to start again at off-guard, Raja Bell would be at small forward trying to cover 6-foot-10 Rashard Lewis.

2) This won't be said but there has not been any fruits to come of Marcus Banks' playing time. Even when he appears to be doing better (20 points against Atlanta or seven assists against Chicago), his time is killing Phoenix. He has the worst plus-minus on the team, according to nba.com Lenovo stats. Phoenix was minus-44 with Banks on the floor for 54 minutes in the past two games.

Jones scored 8 points and had 3 rebounds in his first start of the season.

(azcentral.com)