![\"Spencer](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TDP-L-NUGGETS-THUNDERAO1_0176x.jpg\")
Spencer Jones (21) of the Denver Nuggets grabs a rebound over Cason Wallace (22) of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first quarter at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, February 1, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)
\nAn atypical road to a roster spot<\/p>\n
Jones has been the most surprising success story of the Nuggets\u2019 season, and he\u2019s about to be their de facto trade deadline acquisition. After ducking the luxury tax this week, the team is preparing to convert Jones\u2019 two-way contract to a standard NBA deal so that he can play out the season as part of Denver\u2019s 15-man roster, league sources have told The Denver Post. The promotion will act as both a reward for his services in the absence of Aaron Gordon, and as an upgrade to Denver\u2019s frontcourt depth ahead of what team officials hope will be a deep playoff run.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a rotation NBA player,\u201d Nuggets coach David Adelman reiterated this week as Jones reached his games limit on the two-way contract.<\/p>\n
His road to an NBA roster spot has not been typical. The LinkedIn account \u2014 which has now gone viral across other, more basketball-focused corners of the internet \u2014 is evidence of what Jones always thought his post-college life would be, before his improbable basketball career took off this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to use the degree a little bit,\u201d he joked to The Denver Post about his active presence on the social media platform meant for professional networking. He intended to use it for that as he forayed into the world of Silicon Valley start-ups. He still does. But he also shares insights and reflections on his day job: guarding star athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball was always something that was an interest to him,\u201d his dad, Dwayne Jones, said. \u201cHe was a big KU fan. \u2026 As to whether or not he dreamed of being a pro as a kid? I don\u2019t think there was much of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Jones was surrounded by a family of medical professionals while growing up in the Kansas City area. His paternal grandfather was a general surgeon, his maternal grandfather a physician, his dad an anesthesiologist. He has aunts and uncles who\u2019ve been doctors and nurses. He wanted to major in biomedical engineering in college. \u201cWe almost had to talk Spencer out of taking too many AP courses in high school,\u201d Dwayne said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Look, you\u2019re playing basketball. You\u2019re trying to register for eight AP classes?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Basketball was an extracurricular but not his calling, Spencer thought. His grandfather, Herman Jones Jr.<\/a>, often regaled him with stories of 1950s Kansas City, where he was a pioneering Black doctor while Jayhawks coach Phog Allen was recruiting Wilt Chamberlain to play at Kansas. Herman was fond of telling Spencer that only three people in the area owned a flashy new convertible at the time. One belonged to a surgeon acquaintance. One belonged to the man\u2019s son. The other was Wilt\u2019s, a blatant recruiting violation from KU.<\/p>\n Spencer was influenced by those tales enough to write a biographical paper about Chamberlain in grade school. It was his first work of hoops writing, years before the LinkedIn posts.<\/p>\n Basketball eventually forced him to be flexible with his plans when he enrolled at Stanford on a last-minute athletic scholarship offer. \u201cAfter about one summer of workouts, I was like, yeah, this is gonna be tough to manage,\u201d Jones remembers. He ended up picking a major more conducive to the schedule of a Division I athlete: management science and engineering. It made sense to his interests, anyway. Jones had his reservations about following in the precise footsteps of his family history after hearing his dad\u2019s complaints for years. He had his eyes on business as it related to science.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad\u2019s exact profession wasn\u2019t super-enticing,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI was very interested by health, but I was more interested by the tech and advancements used in it. \u2026 When he was doing surgery, he was learning stem cell research and stuff like that. That stuff specifically about it was really interesting. But you find out that being a doctor is a ton of paperwork, a ton of insurance you have to deal with. That part, most of the health care industry still needs a lot of improving. \u2026 So I still took some health-specific classes (at Stanford). It was always wanting to be around the health tech sector but doing it in more of an entrepreneurial way.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until after his freshman year that Jones started getting nudged by those in his orbit about the possibility of a pro hoops career. He had won a starting job almost immediately at Stanford, and he shot 43.1% from the 3-point line that first season. He was a 3-and-D guy. Nothing fancy. But the numbers jumped off the page. Dwayne was startled when a scout approached him and referred to his son as an NBA prospect.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were kind of giving me ideas that, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re somewhat close. Here\u2019s what you need to work on to move the needle,’\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t think I was close enough to really take it seriously until around that junior year. \u2026 Junior year was like, OK, this is really within striking distance.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet even as the NBA emerged as a borderline realistic possibility, he still made a pivotal basketball decision with his non-basketball career plans in mind. Stanford recruited Jones aggressively to stay for a fifth year when other programs tried to lure him into the transfer portal after his senior season. Andrew Luck and Bill Walton (who briefly attended Stanford Law School in the middle of his playing career) contributed to a video pitch.<\/p>\n The overarching idea was, in part, to remind Jones of all the business contacts he had made at the university. Staying would be a long-term investment. Transferring would be a short-term play for the largest sum of name, image and likeness money.<\/p>\n \u201cThey really pushed in on the names that knew me and all the founders and people with big positions within the school. \u2026 (They were) trying to re-show me what the Stanford name meant, which was great, because look, that\u2019s the reason why (I stayed),\u201d Jones said. \u201cI could have made more money going to a different school. \u2026 But they were just like, \u2018This is what you\u2019ve built here.\u2019 The people I\u2019ve impressed and the people who\u2019ve come to know me, and how I can use these people far beyond (school).\u201d<\/p>\n Jones found the effort touching. He stayed for a fifth year, eclipsing 40% as a 3-point shooter again for a Stanford squad that didn\u2019t make the NCAA Tournament. He went undrafted in 2024. The Nuggets quietly scooped him up on a two-way contract after the second round ended.<\/p>\n Teams can sign up to three players at a time on two-way deals, which allow the player to be maneuvered back and forth between the NBA and G League. Jones spent most of his time with the Grand Rapids Gold in his first year in the pros. One of his fellow two-ways, Trey Alexander, won Rookie of the Year in the G League.<\/p>\n But Jones was the only player the Nuggets wanted to retain in the summer of 2025. They decided his 3-and-D skillset was more translatable to the NBA, whereas a player who scores 25 points per game in the G League by having the ball every possession would be more likely to struggle when acclimating to a smaller, off-ball role. Adelman was early to point out at training camp last September that he believed there was a place in the NBA for Jones.<\/p>\n![\"Stanford](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP24040786240152.jpg\")
Stanford forward Spencer Jones (14) during an NCAA college basketball game against UCLA in Stanford, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu)
\nMaking a long-term investment<\/p>\n![\"Denver](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TDP-L-NuggetsVsRockets-122025-TH-008.jpg\")
Denver Nuggets forward Spencer Jones (21) comes down with a defensive rebound in front of Houston Rockets center Steven Adams (12) on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)
\nFrom the G League to the NBA<\/p>\n