Exclusive: KJ Jones II Discusses Unconventional Path to NBA Chance and Brooklyn Nets Summer League Experience

KJ Jones II played for five seasons at a Division II school and will formally sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Nets next week.

Apr 25, 2022; Brooklyn, New York, USA; General view of the opening tipoff between the Brooklyn Nets and the Boston Celtics during the first quarter of game four of the first round of the 2022 NBA playoffs at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — KJ Jones II’s path to an NBA opportunity never featured ESPN cameras, House of Highlights posts or raucous, celeb-filled campus arena experiences.

For the last five seasons, it went through Franklin Springs, GA — population 1,155 —and Emmanuel University, a Division II school with less than 1,000 students but 37 sports teams.

Last season, in Jones’ final one for Emmanuel, he was the D-II National Player of the Year. The 23-year-old went undrafted, a realistic outcome, but he did enough to get NBA eyes on him, a remarkable achievement given how the league logically emphasizes Division I competition and international leagues nowadays.

Jones, who agreed to a full-bonus Exhibit 10 contract with the Brooklyn Nets on draft night and will formally sign his contract next week when he returns to New York from his native Georgia, recently sat down with Nets On SI to discuss his basketball journey so far, his Summer League experience and why he believes he is a “diamond in the rough.”

---

“How I was raised is to be loyal to who’s loyal to you,” Jones said about why he stayed at D-II Emmanuel for five seasons and turned down D-I approaches.

That is atypical in the contemporaneous college basketball landscape with transfers and NIL deals aplenty, but Emmanuel was “a special place” for Jones. It was the only college to recruit him out of high school, with now-associate head coach Derrick Mason, then an assistant, telling head coach TJ Rosene about Jones. 

“Let me tell u bout KJ. [sic] Deserves all the awards. Never ran from the hard stuff.  Embraced difficult convos. Has a growth mindset. Stays humble. Cares deeply for others. Work ethic matches his dreams. Sacrifices good and easy for hard and unknown,” Rosene posted on X, formerly Twitter, in March.

Jones proved to be a total success at the modest Georgia school, averaging more than 20 points a night in four of his five seasons. In addition to being his division’s top player last year, the 6-foot-6 guard was also its top scorer with 26.2 points per game.

“From a basketball perspective, my goal has always been to make this to the highest level,” Jones said. “That became a reality for me after my fourth [college] year.”

The Atlanta native started to hear that NBA teams were calling his coaches. Then, he was the only D-II player invited to Damian Lillard’s Formula Zero Elite Camp in August 2023, where there would be NBA scouts in attendance.

“If I'm getting this attention from where I'm at, I might as well try to stick it out,” Jones said.

After not being selected in the draft, the Georgia-born guard’s first NBA experience was with the Nets at Summer League. It was a stark comparison to his regular bucket-getting at the college level. Jones only appeared in one game, scoring two points and grabbing one offensive rebound in about nine minutes of court time.

His teammates on that Nets squad included Jalen Wilson, Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead and Jaylen Martin, all of whom are currently featuring in Brooklyn’s preseason. Jones reflected on his Summer League experience.

“I didn't really play, but I just used that as a time to ask questions,” he said. “[To] just be a sponge and just try to learn as much as I could so that when I was getting physical reps, I would be able to do it … Now it’s putting the two together, the mental with the physical.”

Jones explained to Nets On SI that he didn’t consider himself far behind “from a talent standpoint,” but that he needed to get accustomed to NBA sets and parlance. Looking ahead, particularly toward a full NBA contract, Jones understands that he might also need to get used to a new role. 

The recent list of former D-II players to establish themselves in the association is short and includes Derrick White (three seasons at UCCS), Max Strus (two seasons at Lewis) and Haywood Highsmith (four seasons at Wheeling Jesuit). Highsmith, who might contextually be Jones’ closest parallel on that list, inked a two-year, $11 million contract with the Miami Heat this summer.

Jones is currently set to sign an E-10 contract, which is a one-year, fully non-guaranteed deal on a minimum salary that can include a bonus if the player remains with the parent club's G League affiliate for 60 days. These contracts, as Sportrac’s Keith Smith wrote, can be about “beefing up” those rosters in the G (in this case, the Long Island Nets).

“I was tasked pretty much with doing A-through-Z, and I had to do that with two, three or four guys standing in the paint or in help waiting for me to do it,” Jones said about his role at Emmanuel. “With NBA-level guys … I might not touch the ball for six or seven possessions … but no matter what, I’m gonna play defense and whenever I do get the ball … I'm gonna make the right read.”

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Nets on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Nets news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.