Blood spilled on the first play of Nuggets training camp. Spencer Jones’ left elbow introduced itself to Julian Strawther’s face. A tooth went flying across the court. On its way out, it ripped a gash in Jones, who needed stitches before he could resume.
It might have cost him a few reps. It was still a memorable way to announce himself to his teammates.
“That was disgusting,” Jonas Valanciunas said. “Seeing the open elbow. No tooth. That was disgusting.”
“Literally the first play,” Cam Johnson said, “was a firework.”
Jones was entering his second season with the Nuggets on a two-way contract. He had spent most of his rookie year in their version of Siberia, assigned to their G League affiliate team, the Grand Rapids Gold. He wasn’t quite a nobody. He wasn’t exactly somebody, either. The only two-way player Denver retained from 2024-25, he was antsy to prove himself worthy of more playing time at the NBA level. He had planned to be a training camp try-hard. He was playing the long game.
“We’ve got so many offensively talented guys,” he said. “It would have been much harder to get on the floor that way. So I knew this was the opening.”
Unceremoniously taking out a teammate’s tooth laid the groundwork for Jones’ season-saving heroics seven months later. At the time, late last September, he couldn’t dream of checking into an NBA playoff game because wasn’t eligible to do so. Players on two-way contracts are maxed out at 50 regular-season games in the NBA and none in the postseason. The rest of their time is reserved for the minor leagues.
But Jones was just the kind of annoying that Denver needed on its active roster, which faces a perennial deficit of defenders. By the end of February, the Nuggets had signed him to a regular NBA contract for the rest of the season. By Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Monday, he was starting for the injured Aaron Gordon, scoring 20 points and guarding the Timberwolves’ best available player.
“Some guys want opportunities,” coach David Adelman said after Denver’s 125-113 win staved off elimination. “Other guys take them and run with them. He’s done that the whole season.”
Adelman fondly remembers a preseason game in Vancouver, where Jones went scoreless in 14 minutes against the Toronto Raptors. It was less than two weeks after his messy encounter with Strawther. He guarded Brandon Ingram that day with the same audacity. “I’ll never forget that,” Adelman said.
“It was minimal minutes. But it showed that he had confidence in himself that he could guard high-level players. … He’s got self-confidence, and he’s got a coaching staff and a locker room that believe in him.”
There were other hard-nosed highlights and tough lessons sprinkled in throughout Jones’ season, bookmarks in the story of his ascent. He checked into games for sometimes as little as one possession at first, the sole purpose being to guard an opposing star on the last play of a quarter. He bumped heads with All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and stumbled away with a concussion. He pioneered a 13-point fourth-quarter comeback in San Antonio by figuring out how to play center at 6-foot-8.
He learned from subtle last-second lapses while defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic, both of whom drained game-winning shots over him. Adelman was tough on him in those moments. He knew he could be. Jones wore his failures comfortably and publicly. He often reflected by posting on LinkedIn, the preferred social media platform of a Stanford grad who almost pursued an entrepreneurial career in the healthcare industry before signing in Denver as an undrafted free agent. Even now, he often walks to and from Ball Arena for practices and games. More time for introspection for one of the only Nuggets who doesn’t own a car.
Committed to the ugly
It all traced back to training camp, where Jones wiped up the blood and didn’t allow the tooth to wedge itself into his subconscious. It certainly didn’t meddle with his defensive dogma for the rest of Denver’s preseason practices.
“He was hacking the whole time. They weren’t calling the damn fouls,” Bruce Brown said. “He was driving me full-court.”
“I mean, look,” Jones said, laughing. “Part of being a great defender is like, yeah, you’ve gotta be aggressive. You’ve gotta show that aggressiveness. And that comes with the fouls. That comes with being called a hack. So, yeah. … I broke Julian’s tooth. Stuff like that. Literally hacking the whole time, trying to pick up full-court. Then doing it preseason, doing it a couple times in games. It’s just a natural progression. And then eventually, you’ve gotta smooth out the kinks.”
The Nuggets have needed to lean on his ruggedness. His commitment to the ugly. It offsets their elegance offensively. Even at that end of the floor — where Jones was Denver’s third-leading scorer behind Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in Game 5— he did most of his work with his unmistakable, unorthodox, zigzaggy shooting form. His hips jolt to the left, while his arms rear back to the right. He shot the 3-pointer at a 39.6% clip this season.
His final stat line, with the season on the line and a hole in the lineup: 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting overall, 4-of-5 from deep, three rebounds, three steals and three blocks. It was his second career 20-point game.
“Coming into the season (on a) two-way, the goal was to get a standard contract,” he said. “Then you have a standard contract, and the next goal was, yes, let’s try to get in the playoff rotation.”
Not even he dared to envision a starting role in the playoffs. But with Gordon sidelined by left calf tightness for the second time in three games, the Nuggets were confronted by a shortage of big wings capable of guarding Julius Randle for an entire game. Jones stepped in and did it for 37 minutes.
If Gordon remains out, which Adelman is counting on as a possibility, Jones will be asked to continue shouldering that matchup. It unexpectedly became one of the series’ premier, defining matchups on Monday. With Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards out, Randle shifts up the hierarchy. He’ll be expected to serve as their primary scorer and playmaker as they try to close out the series Thursday in Minnesota, and if necessary, in a Game 7 in Denver.
Gordon is ordinarily an ideal defender for him. But his mobility and strength were visibly limited when he tried to tough it out in Game 4. The Nuggets fell to 27-10 this season when Gordon plays. They were 27-20 without him entering Monday’s elimination game at home.
Randle scored 27 points to lead Minnesota in the loss. But his six assists were also canceled out by five turnovers, most notably a Jones steal with four minutes remaining. It extinguished the Wolves’ late comeback.
“He just competes, man,” Adelman said. “Randle’s an All-Star. Randle’s a load. And nobody in this room would want to be near Randle in their lives. And (Jones) just stands there and takes the hits. I thought he was really good outside of one time (at) not fouling him, either, where he made him take tough contested shots. A couple times, (Randle) got to his right shoulder and he laid the ball in with his left hand. But that’s why he gets paid a ton of money, because he’s a really special player. But the stuff early, he pushed him out. That’s the thing with Randle. If you concede space, just go home. I think Spence did a good job of competing for the spot.”
No appendages were lost. Jones was prepared for the bloodlust of the rivalry, the physicality required. He’s at the center of it now. All these months after starting the season at the center of a bloody training camp transaction.
“I think he came in with a clear idea of what it would take to carve out a role for himself,” Johnson said. And he knew that was gonna be with effort and intensity. … He’s done a great job of that all season, and he’s reaped the rewards.”
