In the summer of 2023, Kai Jones – then of the Charlotte Hornets – talked himself out of the NBA. Following a series of social media posts and public statements, in which among other things an erratic and possibly inebriated Jones claimed to be better than then-teammates LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, and further claimed he can beat LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal one on one – the Hornets waived him before the start of the 2023-24 regular season.
Jones was however in the NBA on account of his high talent level, mostly born out of his physical profile. And so while he is no longer in the NBA, he is nevertheless playing good basketball in the EuroLeague – and this season has set a record that could well last forever.
Playing for Turkish giants Anadolu Efes, Jones has played 35 EuroLeague games this season, and averaged 5.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in them. For a foul-prone bench big, that is about as much as one can do in 16.4 minutes per game. But the intrigue comes from how he has posted those numbers – Jones has missed only five shots all season, shooting 58-63 from the field, good for an electric 92.1% field goal percentage.
Hornets Had Something For A While There
To put that into some context, the NBA’s leader in field goal percentage this season was Collin Murray-Boyles of the Toronto Raptors, who hit 65.6% of his shots, just being out Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers (63.5%). The NBA’s leader in field goal percentage in any season was set by Mitchell Robinson of the New York Knicks in 2019-20, when he hit 74.2% of his attempts, and although the aforementioned Shaquille O’Neal has the most seasons leading the NBA in field goal percentage with ten, his single-season best effort was the 60.9% he shot in 2008-09. Jones has put more than 30 percentage points on top of that.
In fact, across the entirely of his body of work, it gets even more impressive. Across another 28 games in Turkish play, Jones has shot 62-64, raising his field goal percentage across the entire campaign to 94.5%, or 120-127. Those are Jose Calderon free throw numbers, not field goals. But that is the rate at which Kai Jones has been converting his shots.
“Shots” is a bit of a generous term, because almost all of those attempts are dunks, and while dunks are as valid of field goal attempts as any other, the word “shot” conjures images of a shooter. Jones, certainly, is not that. In fact, because his free throw percentage is only 66.7%, the former Hornets prospect has managed to somehow cultivate a lower true shooting percentage (.900) than his actual field goal percentage. Free throws are supposed to be easy and contested, but to Jones – an explosive athlete in a long and lean 6’11 frame that gets effortlessly off the ground – nothing comes easier than a dunk.
Jones’s Other NBA Stints
Jones played college basketball at the University of Texas, and averaged 8.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 19.2 minutes per game as a sophomore. Following that season, he declared for the 2021 NBA Draft, and was selected by the Knicks with the 19th overall pick. On draft night, his rights were traded to the Hornets as part of a deal involving a future first round that has still not conveyed, and will instead see the Hornets send their next two second-round picks instead.
During his rookie season in 2021-22, Jones appeared in 21 games, but averaged only 1.0 points and 0.5 rebounds in 3.0 minutes per game. He instead spent significant time with the Greensboro Swarm, the Hornets’ affiliate in the NBA G League, where he averaged 16.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 32 appearances.
During the 2022-23 NBA season, Jones cracked the rotation, appeared in 46 games for Charlotte and averaged 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 12.0 minutes per game. After the aforementioned ignominious September 2023 departure, he would later sign a 10-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, but did not appear in an NBA game during it, then later signed with the Los Angeles Clippers to close out 2023-24. During the 2024-25 season, Jones appeared in 40 games split between the Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks, and averaged 5.0 points and 3.1 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per game, while shooting 79.8%Â from the field.
Through the end of the 2025-26 season, Jones has appeared in 107 NBA regular season games, mostly with the Hornets, and averaged 3.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 67.1% from the field. But the 97% in Europe is better. Maybe he could beat Shaq after all. [He could not.]
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