How Duke's Tre Jones used pandemic downtime to prepare for unique NBA draft

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — Tre Jones was homesick.

It had been five months since he left Minnesota for the West Coast and P3 — a training facility for elite athletes in Santa Barbara, California. 

From late June to early November, Jones, the 2020 ACC Player of the Year out of Duke put on social blinders and focused on the things he could control — diet, strength, speed, endurance, flexibility — while the world around him spun into chaos. 

Work out, eat, sleep. Repeat. Not exactly a California vacation. 

After the NCAA season was cut short in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones was one of three Blue Devils, including Cassius Stanley and Vernon Carey Jr., to declare for the 2020 NBA draft.

It was originally scheduled for June 2, then moved to Oct. 16 and finally landed on Wednesday.  

"It's just nice to be home," said Jones, who is expected to be a late first-round pick during the draft. "This process usually lasts a couple months and now, I'm entering like my seventh month of getting ready for the next step in my career." 

The normal timeline for drafted players is way out of whack after the 2019-2020 NBA season was halted March 11 because of the pandemic and resumed July 30 in a bubble near Orlando, Florida. The league announced earlier this month that the Board of Governors had approved a Dec. 22 start to the 2020-21 season despite last season ending Oct. 11. 

"This is something that's totally new, and everyone in this draft class is being affected. It's completely new territory for everyone involved," Jones said. 

Wherever he lands, the countdown toward a swift NBA debut will begin. 

"You have to control what you can control," said Nate James, Duke's associate head coach. "We've got a lot of guys in the league and our brotherhood is strong. I know wherever they go, whatever opponent they face, they'll have a Duke player that can give them some advice and wisdom."

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'It's the same grind' 

Jones was in high school when his older brother, Tyus, was selected No. 24 in the first round of the 2015 NBA draft. This was just months after leading Duke to an NCAA championship and earning MVP honors in a 68-63 win over Wisconsin.

It's Tre's time now. And Tyus, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, is all-in on helping his little brother.

Since returning to Minnesota, Tre and Tyus have spent nearly every day in the gym, traveling to nearby Eagan where they train at the Minnesota Vikings' practice facility with their oldest brother, 34-year-old Jadee.

"We've been in the gym together for a lot of years," Tre Jones said. "It's pretty cool to now be working for my first NBA season and his sixth. The feeling is the same, it's the same grind."

Tre has learned a lot from his brother's NBA experience and the flexibility Tyus showed during four seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves before signing a three-year deal worth more than $26 million with the Grizzlies in 2019. 

"He didn't have a strong role in the first couple of years," Jones said. "He had to deal with coaching changes and new players coming in, but he always stayed ready. That's what I've taken away, is to always be ready."

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called Jones "the best point guard in the (2020) draft" but he's been projected to go anywhere from a first-round lottery pick to the second round. 

An unpredictable year likely means an unpredictable draft. 

"When my name is called on draft night, wherever I go, I'll be ready to make a big impact," Jones said.

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Different draft day experience

Jones' draft night will be markedly different than his older brother's. 

There won't be a big party — just a few family members congregating in his childhood home.

"I wish I could spend this night with friends and celebrate with some of the people I grew up with," Jones said. "But at the end of the day, in the near future, there will be more things to celebrate."

Draft night will offer Jones' first physical contact with his mother since March. 

Debbie Jones was diagnosed with breast cancer on Jan. 14, 2019, and spent 10 months fighting the disease before doctors declared she was cancer-free. 

The fight, however, has left her immune system compromised and at high risk to develop potentially deadly COVID-19 symptoms if she becomes infected with the virus.

"I like literally have not done or gone anywhere in the last eight months," Debbie said. "I've been cancer-free for over a year, and it's a precautionary thing. We're all just trying to stay safe."

When Jones returned to Apple Valley this month, his first stop was his mother's house. They could only smile at each other from across the front yard. He currently lives in an apartment with his girlfriend, about 20 minutes from his mother.

Debbie has experience with the nerves of watching a son get drafted. This time, though, there are new anxieties.

"We've gone through this process before, but this is different," she said. "It's hard to know with COVID-19, if the season will start on time or stop again. There are so many uncertainties."

One certainty is that Debbie and her son will be together when he's drafted. Everyone invited to her house has agreed to take a COVID-19 test and to wear a mask while inside.

"We're going to do everything we can to be safe," Jones said. "But I might have to break the 'no hug' rule on draft day."

Follow David Thompson on Twitter @daveth89