Jones: Wrist may never be 100 percent

MIAMI - More than a month after the Heat's final game, forward James Jones remains uncertain about the approach he will take with the right wrist that kept him out for the first half of the season.

During the latter stages of the Heat's first-round playoff series against the Hawks, Jones said he planned to have another surgery on the wrist to regain 100 percent range of motion.

Jones, however, said Monday that such range of motion could trigger the same pain that led to last October's surgery for a ruptured tendon.

Instead, the 3-point specialist said he might play next season with the wrist at 80 percent.

"To get my range back," he said, "I would have to have the surgery. But regaining that type of range was the issue from the beginning, is what caused me to have the deteriorating tendon."

Jones said he was heartened by his shooting in the Heat's first-round playoff ouster, when he shot 53 percent from the field and 50 percent on 3-pointers.

"I think I proved that at the end of the season, even with 80 percent range of motion, with the repetition, the rhythm, that I was able to get my shot back," he said.

Although Jones started all seven playoff games at small forward, he only started once during the regular season.

Heat President Pat Riley declared the position open at the end of the season, with Dorell Wright and Yakhouba Diawara also under contract at the position, and 2008 first-round pick Michael Beasley a candidate to move there from power forward.

"It's one of those things where things change from day to day," Jones said.

"So if you set you sights on being a starter, someone else can come in right before the season and kind of throw you off mentally. I've always said just work as hard as I can, develop as much as I can, and then leave it to the coach."

James spoke at Miami Northwestern High, after presenting a $2,500 Heat scholarship in front of a senior assembly.

(sun-sentinel.com)