Tyus Jones has always been in Minnesota.

The 21-year-old -- recently inserted into the Timberwolves starting lineup -- has lived within 20 minutes of the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis for all but one year of his life.

It's "just home," said Jones when describing the energized atmosphere after one of the early-season sellouts at Target Center earlier this season.

It is where Jones -- once the state's teenage hoops phenom -- began starting for his high school varsity team, the Apple Valley Eagles, at age 13. His childhood mailing address in Apple Valley is where Jones received his first recruiting letter from the University of Southern California after averaging 16.8 points per game in that season as an eighth-grader.

California and USC, of course, didn't happen but Tyus did opt to leave the state for that year of his life. As an 18-year-old he moved to Durham, N.C. where he starred for Duke.

This was a brief but full stint away from home -- a sabbatical culminating in a National Championship and a Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament award in 2015. But even with that acclaim, he couldn't escape home.

In fact, it brought him back.

Jones's freshman year at Duke made him a first-round prospect in the 2015 NBA Draft. With his friends and his family, Jones had a draft night get together at The 508 -- a bar/restaurant one block from Target Center.

At The 508, Jones received news that he was drafted 24th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers but that he had no need to leave town. The Minnesota Timberwolves immediately acquired him for two second-round picks -- Cedi Osman and Rakeem Christmas -- taken later that same evening.

Shortly thereafter, Jones signed a deal that would pay him a total of $6.5 million to stay in Minnesota.

Since signing that deal, Jones has consistently progressed.

"I've just been focusing on -- each and every year -- just trying to improve all aspects of my game," said Jones. "Just trying to learn the game, study the game, and build better habits to make it easier on myself. Just learning, focusing on it every day seeing what works, what doesn't work."

The work has paid off. Jones has been entrusted with the starting job in Minnesota for the past seven games while Jeff Teague recovers from a sprained left knee. In those seven games, with Jones at the helm, the Wolves have turned into one of the most potent offenses (eighth in the NBA) and an elite defense (third in the NBA).

The Wolves have ascended since Jones began to take flight.

Should Tyus Jones Start?

For a team that is heavily -- and recently -- invested in Teague, a starting lineup shift probably isn't happening.

Teague is a Tom Thibodeau guy if for no reason other than the fact that Thibs -- the Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations -- was the one who offered the former Atlanta and Indiana guard a three-year, $57 million deal this past summer. That annual salary of $19 million makes Teague the ninth-highest-paid starting point guard in the NBA.

2017-18 Starting Point Guard Salaries

A hot streak even by Jones if it were known to be unequivocally sustainable would still make a lineup shift unlikely due to this investment in Teague. The question with Jones and starting is a proposition that transcends 2018: Is he the starting point guard of the future?

This is where things get very, very murky.

While it would be intuitive that the successful and young Jones could be Teague's successor, the financial realities of Jones's next contract are muddling. This summer, Jones will be up for a rookie contract extension that would kick in at the start of the 2019-20 season. This type of extension is the same as the deal Gorgui Dieng signed in the summer of 2016 and Andrew Wiggins did this past August.

Signing Dieng to a four-year, $64 million deal — at the time — caused little strife for a Timberwolves team that was not even at the league's mandated salary floor. And while Andrew Wiggins's massive contract extension (five years, $148 million) raised some questions, it made sense as they had not yet hit a salary cap wall.

The Wiggins signing -- on top of other moves -- has made that wall very real and Tyus Jones may well be the first casualty of its reality.

This is because in the same draft Jones went 24th overall Karl-Anthony Towns was also drafted. Meaning he too is up for a contract extension this summer. If Towns is given a maximum extension (which is near-lock), that deal will cost Minnesota $158 million over five years. If Towns makes an All-NBA Team this season -- a very real possibility -- his maximum can swell to $190 million.

Signing Towns will be another necessary expense that the Wolves brass will oblige to much like they did with Wiggins. Thibodeau and crew will be fine spending up to and above the projected $108 million salary cap in 2019-20 but like every other team in the NBA they will be avoiding the projected $131 million luxury tax line like the plague.

If Towns receives his super-max, in 2019-20 the Wolves will have $94.9 million committed to Teague, Wiggins, Dieng and Towns alone.

Minnesota will also have another pretty important player up for an extension that summer -- Jimmy Butler. The Wolves' best player -- who will be 29 in the 2019 summer and looking to cash in one last time -- could also be eligible to sign the same five-year, $190 million deal as Towns.

Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns' Potential Max Extension Summer 2019

This would amount to $127.3 million in salary between just five players. Even if the roster is filled out with seven veteran minimum salaries the Wolves are well into the luxury tax.

Would Jones Take A Hometown Discount?

The Wolves can finagle a bit of financial flexibility by moving Dieng or Teague's contracts. However, moving those contracts would likely require a draft pick or Justin Patton additionally being traded for another team to swallow the price tags of Dieng and/or Teague.

Maybe Thibs can convince Butler to accept a slightly reduced rate -- a la Kevin Durant in Golden State -- but substantial space is impossible without a complete roster overhaul.

Even if salary cap maneuvering happens, Jones won't be cheap to retain. Fringe-level point guards today cost around $10 million annually. Jeremy Lin, Jordan Clarkson, Patty Mills, Darren Collison, Matthew Dellavedova and Jerryd Bayless were all signed to these deals over the past two summers.

As it stands today, Jones would certainly attract at least this much demand. And the Wolves just won't have the financial flexibility to give it to him as they need to round out the roster with somewhat serviceable pieces. Parting with Jones would be the price of putting together a decent bench.

Maybe Jones chooses Minnesota for a couple million less annually, but this will be his first chance to make substantial money. Meaningful discounts just don't happen in the NBA. Even if he wanted to, how much good does a discount do when there is simply no space as is?

The Apple Valley native obviously has ties to Minnesota but his allegiance to his home state can only go so far when the Minnesota franchise tied their hands by signing Dieng, Teague, and Wiggins.

When Jones flushed that dunk over LeBron James, he infused this state with an energy that has been void in this state since the Wolves' last playoff appearance that occurred when Jones was in second grade. He has been an instrumental piece in the heaven-like euphoria of the 2017-18 season but his future in Minnesota lies in the hand's of financial hell in the not-so-distant future.

Minnesota has literally been home to Tyus Jones forever, but he could be run out of town by the salary cap.

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