Jones played three years with the Dallas Mavericks and has the NBA championship ring to prove it.
Armor guard Dominique Jones has his sites set on returning to the NBA.
SPRINGFIELD - Dominique Jones knows he's going to get back to the NBA, he just has to find the right path.
The newest member of the Springfield Armor spent three years in the NBA as a Dallas Maverick, and has an NBA championship ring to prove it.
But those days are over for now, his ties with the Mavericks severed when he was waived by the team earlier this month.
"I was happy," Jones said Saturday before the Armor played the Maine Red Claws at the MassMutual Center. "People don't know the story. I requested that. But it doesn't matter, it's in my past and I'm happy to be here, happy to play in the end."
Jones, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, was a first-round pick - 25th overall - for the Mavericks in the 2010 NBA Draft. He played in 80 games over three seasons for the Mavericks and averaged 3.1 points and 1.8 assists over that time.
His numbers were up slightly this season, averaging four points and 2.8 assists in 29 games, but his career shooting percentage of 36.6 was not getting any better and his foul shooting deteriorated each season.
Jones played 13 games for the Texas Legends, the Mavericks' D-League affiliate, in his first two professional years so he was familiar with the D-League before the Armor acquired him on March 18 from the D-League available player pool.
He had a rough first game with the Armor, scoring just five points on 1 for 7 shooting while turning the ball over six times in a win over Erie. But two nights later he went off for 28 points on 9 of 13 field goal shooting and had nine assists.
"Yeah, but I made a lot of mistakes, too, even some down the stretch," Jones. "If I was in shape I don't think I would have made those mistakes. If I was getting ready or in my rhythm, I don't know. I just got to come out here and continue to work and try to get better."
Plenty of players who have tasted life in the NBA are not exactly thrilled to find themselves back in the D-League and don't handle the transition very well. Jones is trying to keep from falling into that trap.
The road back to the NBA, he knows, is to do the job expected of him in the D-League and not shoot for individual glory.
"No matter where you are at you have to continue working and everything will come around," Jones said. "Don't worry about who you are playing for, just go out and do what you've got to do and get better.
"When you're playing against another team you definitely have to play together if you want to beat them," he said. "It's the same thing when it comes to individual progression, you have to go out there and make a basketball play."
Jones can't predict how or when he'll make his return to the NBA, but he's confident it will happen.
"Things will work out," he said.