Debbie Jones took her seat courtside and prepared to watch her son Tyus play in an NBA game at Target Center, just as she has done hundreds of times before.

Only this time she was wearing Memphis Grizzlies gear and seated on the side of the court nearest the visitor’s bench, not in her usual seats behind the home team. The Jones family had been preparing for this moment ever since Tyus signed with the Grizzlies in July after playing his first four seasons in the league with his hometown Timberwolves. But it’s one thing to think about it, and another thing entirely to actually live it.

Advertisement

“It does feel weird,” Debbie Jones said, scrunching her face as she readied for tipoff.

“Really weird,” said Carrie Yeakey, Tyus’s fiancee, dressed in her Memphis Grizzlies jacket.

Minnesota’s First Family of Basketball has been on a roller-coaster over the past year and change. Debbie’s hair is growing back after a bout with breast cancer (she was pronounced cancer-free earlier this fall). Tyus went from miserable in Minnesota under Tom Thibodeau to hopeful for an increased role when Ryan Saunders took over to on the move when the Timberwolves declined to match a three-year offer from Memphis that pays him about $9 million a year. Jones and Yeakey were engaged before the season started, and the couple gathered with family on Saturday night for a gender reveal party for the child they’re expecting. It’s a boy.

“I was excited to make that happen in the schedule,” Jones said. “The weather cooperated just enough to let us get in town. Those things mean the world to me. Extremely fun to make it back home.”

Jones received a warm ovation from the crowd when he was introduced in the starting lineup, and the Wolves made a classy gesture of not only putting together a short video tribute that played in the arena during the first commercial break but also later recognized his AAU team, which was in attendance.

Thank you for everything, @1Tyus!

— Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) December 1, 2019

“I tried to just stay locked into the game as much as I could, but it was awesome,” Jones said. “I appreciate the organization for doing that. They definitely didn’t have to. So that’s just a very nice gesture for them to acknowledge me and I appreciate that a lot.”

Adding to the excitement for his family and about 70 supporters who came to see his only appearance at Target Center this season: Jones started on Sunday in place of star rookie Ja Morant, who is out with back spasms. In a quintessential Jones performance, he had 12 points, seven assists, four rebounds and just two turnovers to help the undermanned Grizzlies deal the Timberwolves a disheartening loss, 115-107.

Advertisement

It was Minnesota’s fifth straight loss at home, a performance so devoid of energy or enthusiasm from the home team and one that demonstrated the Wolves are still searching for the right approach at point guard four months after Jones left.

Jeff Teague, the point guard Thibodeau signed to start three years ago, has looked out of place in the Wolves’ new system and has been moved to a bench role that allows Andrew Wiggins to continue as the primary ballhandler with the first unit. Teague didn’t take a shot in his first 14 minutes he was on the floor and was a minus-13 with three turnovers and six assists in 26 minutes. Shabazz Napier, the player new president Gersson Rosas acquired in a trade with Brooklyn to serve as the No. 2 point guard behind Teague once Jones left, was understandably rusty in his first game action since Nov. 4 because of an injured hamstring. Napier took one shot in less than nine minutes but was a minus-14 as he was eased back into the rotation.

Saunders tried to play Teague and Napier together and it did not go well. The lineup was gashed defensively, giving up 16 points in the final 4:41 of the deciding third quarter to a Grizzlies team playing without Morant, Brandon Clarke, who left at halftime with a hip injury, Jonas Valanciunas and Kyle Anderson, and had Jaren Jackson Jr. limited by foul trouble.

“I like having multiple ballhandlers out there,” Saunders said. “I like that Shabazz is one of our better 3-point shooters as well. We’ll be taking a look and seeing matchup-wise when it might be tough for us. There were certain matchups we wanted to get to, and we got to them for the most part, but it didn’t work out for us.”

The Wolves traded buckets with the Grizzlies in the fourth, once again unable to contain Dillon Brooks, who scored 12 of his 26 points in the final 12 minutes. With that, they fell to a ghastly 3-7 at home on the season, and this one was the worst loss yet.

Advertisement

The Grizzlies had lost six straight and are in the first year of a massive rebuild. But they are 2-0 against the Wolves, getting by on hustle and sweat and simply outworking them for most of the game.

“We’ve got to remember this,” said Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five assists but was 1 for 10 from 3-point range. “For us, (wanting to be) a playoff team, this is kind of a traumatic loss for us. We got to get back to the drawing board tomorrow.”

This wasn’t quite the Tyus Jones Revenge Game, like when Ricky Rubio came back two years ago and led the Jazz to an important victory. Jones played well but sat for most of the fourth quarter while the Grizzlies closed it out with De’Anthony Melton at the point.

And would the Wolves be in a different place had they matched the offer on Jones? Rosas made clawing back future flexibility for a cap-strapped team a major priority in his first summer on the job, and the Wolves ultimately decided that $27 million over three years was too much to spend on a player they saw as a backup point guard in the league.

In his first 19 games in a new city, with a new coach and new teammates, Jones hasn’t lit the world on fire. He entered the game averaging 5.9 points and 4.6 assists while shooting just 37 percent from the field and 18 percent from deep. He is tasked, all of a sudden, with being a veteran mentor on a young team, someone who can help Morant find his way in the league.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins said. “Still trying to find his way a little bit, like a lot of our guys are. But he’s just been a stable force for us, bringing consistency off the bench.”

That is about what the Wolves thought he was capable of doing when they made the decision not to match. There were teammates and coaches who thought the world of him as a person, a teammate and a leader. But it is unlikely that anything that happened on the court Sunday made them regret not spending the money to retain him. With hefty contracts for Towns, Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng on the books after this season, the Wolves don’t have much wiggle room. Matching on Jones would have made things even tighter for them in relation to the luxury tax.

Advertisement

As well as Jones played, it was the shooting of Brooks and Grayson Allen, the offensive rebounding of Bruno Caboclo and the overall malaise of the Timberwolves that were most responsible for such a disappointing outcome from the home team.

But it did underscore the issues the Wolves have at one of the game’s most important positions. Wiggins is flourishing in the lead playmaker role, but it remains to be seen just how much of that load he can carry over a full season. Teague has largely struggled and Napier missed the previous 12 games. Saunders tried to get by with Jordan McLaughlin from Iowa, but he was overmatched.

When Teague is playing well, moving the ball and being aggressive, the Wolves have had success. When Teague dominates the ball, pounds it into the court over and over and passes up open 3s, they have a much more difficult time competing.

At 10-9, the Wolves are surprisingly hanging around the playoff picture thanks in large part to a 7-2 record on the road. Long term, they know they need an answer at point guard who can take some of the pressure off Wiggins and do a better job of getting Towns touches where he can do the most damage.

The schedule gets daunting starting now, with eight of the next 11 on the road. Heck, with as poorly as the Wolves have played at home, maybe that’s just what they need to establish some momentum.

“I do think that sense of urgency is needed in every game and not just against a Memphis team,” Saunders said. “Yeah, I do think that.”

Thank you for welcoming me back🙏🏽 @Timberwolves

— Tyus Jones (@1Tyus) December 2, 2019

Some in the Jones contingent on Sunday couldn’t help but notice the issues the Wolves are having at point guard. Everyone knows the NBA is a business, but it can be hard to take the emotions out of the choices that are made, especially when it comes to the hometown kid who had thoughts of playing his entire career for the team he grew up cheering for.

Advertisement

“You never assume or think it’s a certainty, but it was a situation where, why not?” Jones said. “There’s been guys in the league who have played their whole career with one team, or 95 percent of it. So you always think, what if and why not. But at the same time, I’m realistic and I know it’s a business and I know things can happen, so it was never any hard feelings or disappointment or things like that.”

Jones never took it personally and remains happy and excited about his new home and his new life in Memphis. For those who are not immersed in the day-to-day grind like he is, it can be harder to look at the game quite so dispassionately.

As the family gathered at center court after the game for a picture, the smiles were a little wider having watched how it all went down.

“So many different thoughts and emotions coming to the game, flying here, in the bus on the way over, everything’s new and different,” Jones said. “Kind of get it out of the way now. Now the next time I come here it will still be different, but it won’t be the first time.”

(Photo: Harrison Barden / USA Today)