What’s in a Glue Guy: Kam Jones & Lineup Versatility
Senior guard Kam Jones made a significant leap as a primary ball handler in his fourth and final season with the Marquette Golden Eagles—here’s what that means for his NBA stock.
The “glue guy” label in a team-building context, to me, is often used lazily, or at least without a ton of thought involved. Evaluators will sometimes use this label when a given player fits a specific team’s immediate needs particularly well (e.g., like how a team in need of floor spacing and wing defense could view a 3-and-D wing as a “glue guy”), other times the label means a prospect’s ancillary skills may shine brighter than their most developed skill on its own, and sometimes people will just use the term to indicate that a player won’t serve as a team’s cornerstone.
With that in mind, if one were to ask me for my definition of a “glue guy” in conversation, I’d simply say “it depends.” And even if that feels like the cop-out answer of cop-out answers, I’d have a difficult time defining it accurately any other way in a sentence or less. Regardless, now that I (hopefully) have your attention, we’re going to try and define it anyway, and then talk a bit about one of my favorite prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft class—Kam Jones—and how he’ll fit the bill at the next level.
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What Makes a Glue Guy?
Before we even dive into the tangible components of an NBA glue guy, my main issue with this label is the use of glue as an analogy. In a team context, if it’s used to mean that a player will bring all the other separate components of a roster together, or even that they’ll fill a specific role, on a specific team, in a specific context, that’s entirely valid. To revisit the idea of a 3-and-D wing cleanly fitting into the context of an existing team that simply needs more shooting and better defenders, the “glue” in glue guy makes sense.
On the other hand, though, in the real world, glue works as intended once it’s hardened and no longer malleable. In the NBA, I find the most valuable “glue guys” to be the players who specifically are malleable, whether that means they can defend different positions depending on lineups, play on or off the ball on offense, have a unique positional skill that can be leveraged to create advantages or mismatches, etc. This is where it gets difficult to come up with a single definition of a glue guy or even compare prospects to current NBA glue guys, as they’re typically very different from one another. But if we were to boil down the qualities of these players to the broadest-possible concepts, I see three things that link most glue guys together:
Versatility:
Another highly ambiguous, often overused term in draft evaluations, the “versatile” label tends to be thrown around a lot without ample elaboration, but I think it’s appropriate in this conversation as glue guys often bring some form of versatility to the table. In one context, that could mean a guard prospect is versatile enough to run offense as the ball handler, but is just as successful as a corner spot-up shooter or cutter off the ball. In another situation, a power forward may bring the requisite size and mobility to occasionally match up defensively with bigs in the paint and/or guards and wings on the perimeter. Or perhaps a big man can space the floor on offense while being able to defend in drop coverage and in a switching scheme on defense. The possibilities here are nearly endless, but in some form or fashion, glue guys tend to be versatile enough to adapt to their team’s changing needs on one or both ends of the floor.
Scalability:
Speaking of teams’ changing needs, scalability is just as, if not even more relevant in this conversation. Imagine a scenario where a playoff-hopeful team is light on point guard depth; they have an All-Star-level starting point guard, a league-average backup point guard off the bench, and a point guard deep into the bench who rarely sees playing time. The starting point guard is out for a few weeks with a mild injury, and the bench point guard, while playable, is nursing a tweaked ankle and is on a minutes restriction. Even if the team is approaching playoff-clinching or otherwise important games in the very near future, do you risk re-injuring your backup point guard and play them for extended minutes, or do you play the point guard who hasn’t played a minute in the past ten games?
Enter this team’s starting shooting guard, who, while not as talented of a primary ball handler as their injured starter, has the requisite ball-handling and playmaking acumen to fill in as the starting point guard for a few games reasonably well. The team has enough wing depth to fill in the starting off-guard spot, and the team’s backup point guard can continue playing off the bench with a minutes restriction until he’s fully healthy. In this case, because the starting shooting guard can scale up into a more primary role while still being relatively successful, this player is deserving of the “glue guy” label. The ability to scale down can be just as valuable as well, particularly in the later stages of team building (e.g., how Devin Vassell will scale down next to Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox as the Spurs’ two primary options).
NBA Readiness:
Lastly, glue guys tend to be ready to play in the NBA on day one, at least to some extent. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be excellent on day one and contributing to championship-level basketball—at least in most cases—but they need to be ready to play NBA minutes. More specifically, glue guys tend to need something that will keep them playable and on the floor even in their worst games. This absolutely does not mean that a prospect that’s dubbed as more of a project player can’t develop into a glue guy, but at a certain point, it’s difficult to be a team’s “glue” to regularly contribute. Typically, it’s the well-rounded players who tend to be the most NBA-ready the soonest, as opposed to players who begin their careers depending on a single, specific skill to remain playable.
What Makes Kam Jones an NBA Glue Guy?
With the long-winded explanation out of the way, I think it’s now worth sharing a bit of why I see Kam Jones as one of the most under-appreciated prospects in his class and perhaps the best offensive glue guy in his class outside of the very top tier of prospects.
Offensive Versatility
Out of all prospects in this class, Jones is one of very few who I’m very comfortable labeling a dribble-pass-shoot guard that also has the requisite size to survive on defense at the next level. While I would normally be a bit worried about someone with Jones’ passable, but not great free-throw shooting and somewhat unorthodox follow-through on his jump shot, he has a history of being an efficient three-point shooter and has outstanding touch around the basket, even at awkward angles or through contact. His touch also lends to his projection as a distance shooter, even with his less-than-efficient season this year. His catch-and-shoot efficiency in years past in his off-ball role was more than convincing enough for me in combination with his rim finishing, but he also has sneakily deep range even now, which should not be overlooked.
Speaking of Jones’ touch at the rim, while I’d normally be similarly worried about someone of his age who lacks vertical athleticism (as he finished the season with zero dunks), he also has a history of good-to-great rim efficiency, finishing this season converting 64% of this close 2s (per Bart Torvik). Paired with Jones’ good handles, he’s particularly excellent at finding ways to catch defenders off-balance or flat-footed. He’s a player I’d consider “shifty” with the ball, as he’s a bit twitchier on crossovers and spins than I think he’s usually given credit for, but also extremely comfortable using change-of-pace moves and hesitations to blow past defenders on the perimeter or throw off their timing on jumps around the rim.
As a passer, Jones is extraordinarily dynamic, as he’s able to hit passes off the live dribble with both hands, often with impressive distance and velocity. You’ll regularly see him catch defenders sleeping on post-entry passes, passes whipped to the weak side at the first instant of ball-watching or over-helping, his signature flip-over-the-shoulder pass to shooters slightly behind him on the perimeter, and a few “woah”-inducing passes through tight windows or doubles.
Does Kam Jones have star-like offensive upside in a vacuum? Probably not, but he shouldn’t necessarily be selected in the draft to be that kind of an NBA player. Rather, Jones stands out of the pack as a player who can be an extremely valuable third, or possibly even second offensive option on a very good team. If he’s paired with a player who can bend an offense and create advantages, he can be the one to score on his own off of those advantages or be the connective piece to exploit the advantage and find the scorer. It’s incredibly rare to find a proven off-ball scorer who has point-guard-like playmaking acumen. This has benefits in and of itself in the context of a team’s best lineup, but it has additional team-building benefits we’ll touch on shortly.
Conducive to Winning Basketball
Beyond sheer skill, there’s still quite a bit to like about Jones as a player, and to condense it all down into a single takeaway, he plays in a way that will help an NBA team win games—right now. It’s one thing for a draft prospect to enter the league with an attribute that will simply keep them on the floor, but it’s an entirely different thing to be valuable enough from the jump that a coaching staff will be more or less forced to give that player meaningful playing time. If I were forced to guess where Jones lands on that spectrum, even without knowing which team he’ll join, I’d say he’s much farther toward the latter.
When assessing players who are deemed to be one or two-position defenders in the NBA at best, their rebounding capabilities are something I tend to pay closer attention to, purely out of the belief that teams can’t be giving their opponents multiple scoring opportunities per possession when they have an average to below-average defender on the floor. Jones’ rebounding goes criminally under-discussed, as he not only makes the effort to box out but also has genuinely good production as a rebounder. I don’t think his 4.5 rebounds per game quite do him justice, as he had multiple near double-digit rebounding games this past season to go with a 13-rebound triple double against 6th-ranked Purdue in his fourth game of the year.
Beyond Jones’ rebounding, I find his motor to be consistent, he makes an effort on defense even if he isn’t projected to be a great defender at the next level, and his general physicality and competitiveness tend to stand out even in his worst performances. But possibly his most desirable attribute respective to winning basketball is just how much he takes care of the ball on offense. Jones recorded one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country in his senior year, which is particularly impressive given his massive surge in usage. Some could see this as him simply playing it safe when it came to his passes, but again, even if that is the case to some extent, making the “right” pass will likely be the extent of his playmaking responsibilities in his ideal role in the NBA. If a team is looking for an off-guard who can be a highly effective complementary playmaker, even if it isn’t flashy most of the time, look no further.
Scalability
A big component of guard prospect evaluation—particularly when it comes to those labeled as combo guards—is determining whether they bring both the scoring of a shooting guard and the ball handling of a point guard. Outside of players who are often considered firm lottery prospects (e.g., Dylan Harper in this class), it can be difficult to come to a confident conclusion one way or the other because it’s rare to see them take on each role or a blend of both roles for a significant amount of time. In Kam Jones’ case, however, that is precisely what we’ve seen. Jones essentially took on Tyler Kolek’s role in his absence this season and not only had success, but took Marquette to the NCAA Tournament. If this doesn’t prove some form of scalability, I’m not sure what does.
Jones, to me, is going to be more valuable in the NBA playing off of another primary offensive option. At the same time, however, his final collegiate season should fully convince evaluators that Jones can be a primary option if he needs to be. When it comes to long-term sustenance of championship-level success, lineup versatility is an absolute need in the modern NBA. Whether it’s to experiment prior to the playoffs, exploit a certain matchup, or fill in for an injured player, NBA teams should be confident that Jones can play both guard positions depending on the team’s needs in any given game. This, more than any of the skills or desirable qualities we listed here, should indicate to those teams that he can be the “glue” that has benefits for an entire roster. Any NBA team in the back half of the lottery or later that is looking to compete for a title in the near term should strongly consider Jones as a versatile offensive weapon.