Retired - Retired after 2017 season
- Birthdate: 10/04/1980
- Drafted (NBA): 49th pick, 2003
- Pre-draft team: Miami (FL)
- Country: USA
- Hand: Right
- Agent: -
| Date | League | Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| 15th April, 2003 | USBL | Drafted 62nd overall in the 2003 USBL Draft by Dodge City Legend. |
| 2003 NBA Draft | NBA | Drafted 49th overall by Indiana. |
| 21st August, 2003 | NBA | Signed a partially guaranteed two year minimum salary contract with Indiana. |
| 25th August, 2005 | NBA | Signed and traded by Indiana with a four year, $11.1 million contract to Phoenix in exchange for a 2008 second round pick (#55, Mike Taylor). Included player option for 2008/09. |
| 11th July, 2007 | NBA | Traded by Phoenix, along with the draft rights to Rudy Fernandez (#24, 2007), to Portland in exchange for cash. |
| 26th June, 2008 | NBA | Declined 2008/09 player option. |
| 9th July, 2008 | NBA | Signed a partially guaranteed five year, $23.2 million contract with Miami. Included early termination option after 2011/12 season. |
| 28th June, 2010 | NBA | Waived by Miami. |
| 19th July, 2010 | NBA | Re-signed by Miami to a guaranteed two year minimum salary contract. Included player option for 2011/12. |
| 29th June, 2011 | NBA | Declined 2011/12 player option. |
| 9th December, 2011 | NBA | Re-signed by Miami to a three year, $4.5 million contract. Included player option for 2013/14. |
| 5th August, 2014 | NBA | Signed a guaranteed one year minimum salary contract with Cleveland. |
| 24th July, 2015 | NBA | Re-signed by Cleveland to a guaranteed one year minimum salary contract. |
| 2nd August, 2016 | NBA | Re-signed by Cleveland to a guaranteed one year minimum salary contract. |
| 1999 - 2003 | Miami FL (NCAA) |
| August 2003 - June 2005 | Indiana Pacers (NBA) |
| August 2005 - July 2007 | Phoenix Suns (NBA) |
| July 2007 - June 2008 | Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) |
| July 2008 - June 2014 | Miami Heat (NBA) |
| August 2014 - June 2017 | Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) |
June 29, 2017
James Jones
SF/PF, 6’8, 218lbs, 36 years old, 14 years of experience
A one-dimensional three-point shooter, as ever, although a mere .717% three-point rate this past season was actually his lowest since 2009-10. 47% of those shots went in, which is excellent, and Jones did exactly what was required of him in his minimal role. But with Jefferson, Korver and Frye around him to do much the same role, is the role worth having with roster spots in such a pinch?
Player Plan: Expiring minimum salary. Now aged 36, the team that needs to get younger, quicker and better defensively surely has not the room for yet another spot-up shooter, even if they are LeBron’s mate.
April 13, 2017
[...] Instead, they got more shooters. They gave more roster spots to LeBron’s friends, heaped up on wings, left themselves without a tertiary playmaker, trusted Chris Andersen’s knees would suddenly lose ten years of wear and tear, and brought back pretty much the same already-aging unit as last year, except this time without any backup point guards or centres. They entered the season with little rim protection, with Channing Frye at backup centre, with no backup point guard except a young Kay Felder who they promptly did not trust with rotation minutes, and ultimately put themselves in a situation where Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson and James Jones took up three roster spots to do pretty much the same thing.
August 12, 2010
James Jones's weird contract saw the final three seasons guaranteed for only $1,856,000, $1,984,000 and $2,112,000 respectively, for a total of $5,920,000. If Miami cut him, that's all they would have owed him, a significantly lesser amounted than the $14,910,000 they would have owed him had they not waived him before July 1st. Miami tried to trade this contract so that they could owe him nothing at all, yet there were no takers, and so they ended up waiving him.
However, rather than paying Jones $5,920,000, they instead paid him only $4,920,000. In a bid to open up more cap room, Miami co-erced Jones into giving up a million dollars of what they owed him; they did this by agreeing to pay him what they owed him in one lump sum. The two most important rules with buyouts are that;
a) the amount of money that the team pays the player is that amount that is charged to the cap,
b) the amount that is charged to the cap is spread evenly amongst all remaining guaranteed compensation on the contract.
However, that doesn't affect how the money itself is paid out. Players and teams can pretty much do what they want in that regard. Put more simply, what you see on a team's salary cap chart (such as the one above) is not always what is actually paid out. Jones's incentive to give up $1 million was to turn three years of small checks into one big fat $5 million one that he could have instantly; Miami's incentive to cut him that check was to to reduce Jones's cap hit and open up more cap space. Using rule (a) above - whereby the distribution of the buyout amount must be equal to the distribution of guaranteed compensation in the original contract - Jones's cap hits became $1,544,172, $1,650,667 and $1,757,161 respectively, thereby opening up $311,828 in 2010 cap room for Miami.