Tyus Jones breaks longstanding franchise record with impressive debut performance

The Phoenix Suns began their 2024-25 season – a season in which we expect them to go 51-31 – with an impressive overtime win against the LA Clippers on Wednesday night. A contest that took place in the extremely impressive Intuit Dome and also featured solid performances from two Suns rookies.

Point guard Tyus Jones also made his competitive debut for the franchise – and he did not disappoint in the starting position promised to him. The 28-year-old looks exactly what this group was missing last season as he finished the game with 11 points and a team-high eight assists in 35 minutes of play.

Before we reveal exactly what that was – and it's truly an area where Suns fans will be thrilled to know he's already made an impact – Jones also needs to be commended for the fact that his introduction appears to have positively helped Bradley Beal. Jones shouldn't be too excited about this, of course, but the fact that Beal is healthy to start the campaign is a huge plus and has helped him find his rhythm early on.

But as he finished with 24 points — and also carried some of the load offensively after Devin Booker fouled out on the play — it looks like Beal will be much more comfortable playing alongside Jones. This allows him to be primarily a goalscorer, with top-notch playmaking at times occurring naturally in this manner.

If you dare to recall last season's disjointed experience, Beal was so concerned about being the point guard that Jones naturally is for this team that it felt like he was both forcing passes and He couldn't stand the stares either. During his time with the Washington Wizards, he often came into his time with self-confidence.

But back to the record in question: It should come as no surprise that it involves assists to turnovers. Jones and backup Monte Morris have the two best odds in this area in league history, which goes a long way toward explaining why the franchise grabbed both of them when they had the chance this summer.

But with eight assists without a single turnover in the game, Jones had the most assists in a debut game for the Suns without a turnover since the ABA-NBA merger. What a luxury it is to have a guy who cares so much about the basketball while also making sure his star teammates get the ball in the places they want often.

What was also interesting here were the 10 shots that Jones took during the night, half of them. This is consistent with last season when he played for the lottery-bound Wizards, with the 10.1 in 66 games played certainly a career high. That number was expected to drop closer to the 7.3 he produced in four seasons as a quality reliever for the Memphis Grizzlies.

It's also likely he'll have nights where he only puts in half his production against the Clippers, but that's another luxury in head coach Mike Budenholzer's offensive system. Having a point guard who primarily wants to get his guys going, but who can also step in with 11 points when needed when one of his teammates has an off night is a great sign as his tenure with the Valley begins .

Another positive aspect of Jones' performance was the aforementioned assists, as the highest average he had before last season with the Wizards (7.3 in Washington) was 5.2 in his final season with the Grizzlies . It looks like he's poised to combine both of his past performance types while breaking records in his first game with the Suns. What a signing already.