Big East Basketball: How each 2023 NBA draftee will fit with their new teams
By John Makuch
4. Kings, No. 34, Colby Jones, Xavier
The Xavier Musketeers have not had a player drafted since 2017 in Edmond Sumner, but Colby Jones has now halted that drought.
Charlotte originally had this selection, then traded it to Boston, who then traded it to the Sacramento Kings where Jones now ends up beginning his career. Jones saw his rise up draft boards as well, and his performance at Xavier was a big part of his being drafted at a good spot just outside the first round.
Jones is a dynamic guard who can handle the ball well and finish at the rim with good efficiency and provides a very solid rotation piece to take the pressure off a guy like De’Aaron Fox. With the Kings having now broken their playoff drought, Jones is a player that should expect to make the postseason in his first year of NBA action and should be a contributor off the bench for this squad.
He shoots just around 34 percent from three and averaged 15 points per game last season for a Xavier team that had plenty of scorers like Souley Boum and even guys like Jack Nunge and Zach Freemantle who missed a good chunk of the season. Jones got that team buckets when they needed it, and who knows how far they could have gone if Freemantle did not go down.
Sacramento got a guy who is a winner, can score in just about every way, and should be quite the spark for a team looking to put together the last few pieces to create a consistent winner, and maybe even a championship squad.