When the Dallas Wings signed Haley Jones to a hardship contract on June 12, the move was met with little fanfare. Dallas, fresh off a miserable opening month of the WNBA season, was dealing with a rash of injuries and EuroBasket absences, and warm bodies were needed. Jones, who had recently been waived by Phoenix, played two games for Dallas and then was waived again. It appeared as though she was just passing through.
But General Manager Curt Miller later explained that the Wings, who fully intended
on signing Jones to a rest-of-season contract, had to waive her once her hardship deal expired due to league rules. Then, they were forced to wait the mandatory 10 days to re-sign her to a new deal. So, Jones signed with Dallas again on July 4th, this time for the remainder of the 2025 season. And based on her play since then, she isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Jones has been nothing short of revelatory since returning to the Wings. She’s really broken out over the past four games, averaging 11.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks over that time. Her stellar play has earned her an increased role, and she’s averaged 31 minutes per game over the last three contests.
When Jones is on the floor, the Wings have resembled a very good basketball team. Per PBP stats, Dallas has a Net Rating of +8.7 when Jones is on the floor (162-minute sample). In the 883 minutes the Wings have played without Haley Jones, their Net rating is -9.2. Essentially, the Jones minutes transform Dallas from lottery team to championship contender. Of course, the sample here is very small, and you can expect some heavy regression in these figures; but Jones’s contributions have been immense thus far.
So, what gives? How did Dallas pluck a player with this kind of impact off the scrap heap? How is Jones doing this? After all, Jones was waived by Atlanta (the team that drafted her) in training camp, signed a hardship deal with Phoenix, was waived again, and had to sign with Dallas twice before she stuck. Before this recent stretch, it seemed as though Jones was fighting tooth and nail just to stay in the league. How have things flipped so quickly?
Well, Jones has always had special talent. Her four-year career at Stanford was filled with accolades, including a First Team All American selection and a national championship. For much of her college career, Jones was considered a top WNBA prospect. There was just one big question for her: what exactly is her position?
Legendary coach Tara VanDervee ran a Princeton system at Stanford, and within that structure, Jones operated as a de-facto point guard. One of Jones’s strongest attributes is her playmaking and processing ability, and that shined in VanDervee’s system. At 6’1”, Jones seemed to have potential as a big, playmaking guard at the next level.
But Jones lacked the guard skills necessary for success in the WNBA. She couldn’t shoot, she couldn’t self-create, and she wasn’t quick enough to beat guard defenders off the bounce. Some teams were wary of this, and Jones fell slightly from a projected lottery pick to No. 6 overall in the 2023 WNBA draft. Jones landed in Atlanta under head coach Tanisha Wright and ended up assuming a backup combo guard role.
This was likely the worst possible outcome for Jones’s development. The Dream kept trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with Jones, who wasn’t having any success trying to create as a guard against WNBA defenders. In her two seasons with Atlanta, Jones averaged a meek 3.8 points and 2.2 assists on .365/.214/.727 shooting splits. She had a rotation role, averaging 16.2 minutes per game during that time, but never produced. Though Wright was fired after the 2024 season, Jones had already fallen out of Atlanta’s plans, and the front office decided it was time to move on.
And it’s fortunate for Dallas that they did, because Wings coach Chris Koclanes instantly figured out something the Dream never could: Haley Jones is not a guard. The Wings are heavy on self-creators: Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Aziaha James, JJ Quinerly, and DiJonai Carrington all demand the ball in their hands. With all of those players handling creation duties, the only way for Jones to get minutes was to play a different position. So far, Jones has been used exclusively in a frontcourt role. She’s played everything from the three to the five, and she is not being asked to handle guard duties. And that has unlocked the talent that made her such an enticing prospect.
Consider this: in her two seasons in Atlanta, Jones had just one (1!!!) total possession as a pick-and-roll roller compared to 128 total possessions as a pick-and-role ball handler (per Synergy Sports). Jones was running nearly two pick-and-rolls a game for Atlanta, but they literally never thought to use her as the roll player. In 2025, she’s already totalled eight possessions as a roller (including her Phoenix stint).
Jones is averaging less than one possession per game as a pick-and-roll ball handler in Dallas. She’s also spending a lot more time cutting; per Synergy, Jones is averaging 1.3 cuts per game in Dallas and has gone 6-8 on field goals off those cuts. Compare that to her first two seasons in Atlanta, where she had just 42 total cuts (0.5 per game). The shift is clear; the Dallas coaching staff sees Jones as a roaming, playmaking forward who can utilize her vision and passing talent in the middle of the floor against a reactive defense.
These changes have been reflected on the defensive end, too. Jones is averaging career highs in Steal and Block rate (2.5 and 4.1%, respectively) and she’s defending a lot more post action. For Dallas, Jones has already defended eight shots in the post, and opponents are 1-7 on those attempts (per Synergy). In 2023-2024, Jones defended just 11 total shots in the post. There’s a clear pattern here on both sides of the ball.
Though Jones is going to be undersized against most WNBA fours and fives, she’s tall and strong enough to hold her own. She might be more Boris Diaw than Draymond Green, but that is the kind of archetype Jones fits into. On the W side, think discount Alyssa Thomas. While comparing Jones to one of the best players of all time isn’t fair, there aren’t many others who can fit this mold. Jones is unique, and the early returns indicate that Dallas may have unlocked something special. You have to give the coaching staff credit for recognizing it and putting her in a position to succeed.
The biggest thing for Jones going forward will be improving her spot-up three-point shooting and getting more comfortable as a play finisher. There are some encouraging signs there, as Jones has hit her last three attempts from distance and looked comfortable taking them. If she can improve there, look out.
Wins and losses don’t really matter for the Wings in the 2025 season. This is a year of evaluation, and all of these players are auditioning to see who fits with rookie megastar Paige Bueckers. Bueckers and Jones have displayed great chemistry together thus far, and Jones has been an effective safety valve for Bueckers when she gets blitzed. Jones’s play has highlighted the importance of surrounding Bueckers with good processors of the game who can make good, quick decisions. If Jones can keep this up, it’s a massive organizational win for the Wings, who need all the young talent they can get.
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