Lajae Jones signing with Pallacanestro Trieste on Monday makes one thing plain: the Golden State Warriors are almost certainly not getting him this season, and maybe not for a while.
Golden State still owns Jones’ NBA rights, so there’s always a path back. If he develops well in Italy, he could still matter to the Warriors in the 2027-28 season and beyond. But the more immediate read is harder to ignore: this looks a lot like a miss on the 54th pick.
That doesn’t mean every late second-round pick has to become something. It doesn’t even mean this will haunt Mike Dunleavy Jr.’s draft record. Second-rounders, especially near the end of the board, come with long odds, and Dunleavy has done better than average across his four drafts as Golden State’s general manager.
Still, Jones not doing enough in summer league to earn a two-way deal is not a great sign.
The Warriors’ decision-making also says plenty. Draft-and-stash moves have produced real hits over the years - Nikola Jokic, Manu Ginobili, Toni Kukoc and Marc Gasol among them.
But those players all took a different route. They hadn’t played college basketball, and after being drafted in the second round, they stayed overseas and were already established there before reaching the NBA.
Jones doesn’t fit that mold. He played four years in college and is already 22.
The Warriors probably weren’t planning on stashing him when they drafted him, but once he failed to separate himself in summer league, they went in another direction and gave Graham Ike their final two-way spot. That was the right call, because Ike looks more ready to help at the NBA level.
The bigger issue is that Golden State had better options available. If the Warriors had taken Ike at 54 and then lost Jones to an overseas team after a training camp contract, this conversation probably never happens. Ike’s summer league performance showed he should have been drafted, and in that sense the Warriors have already made up for part of the mistake.
But the Jones pick still deserves a look, especially because the Warriors need wing help. Their two-way group includes Malevy Leons, who has the defensive feel to handle some minutes at the 3 and 4, but not the shooting or overall offensive skill to cover Golden State’s wing minutes in a useful way.
In a perfect setup, the Warriors would have landed a wing prospect who could challenge Leons for that two-way spot and still ended up with Ike, too.
There were names in that range who at least offered that kind of possibility. Quadir Copeland, listed at 6-foot-6, had the size to take a wing look, and while he was more of a facilitator in college, he hit 6 of 11 from three and recorded 13 steals in five summer league games. Michael Ajayi, a 6-foot-7 undrafted wing, got a two-way from the Hornets despite shaky perimeter shooting because he rebounded hard and piled up nine combined steals and blocks in five summer league games.
Either player would have had a real shot to beat out Leons and claim the Warriors’ two-way slot if Golden State had used the 54th pick on them.
Of course, finding a wing with real three-and-D upside in the late second round is tough. The Warriors not landing one who could help right away is not some shocking failure.
But the context matters. Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are both out for several months with knee injuries, and Golden State needs wing help wherever it can find it. Other teams have turned late picks and undrafted players into useful pieces - Spencer Jones with the Nuggets, Blake Hinson with the Jazz, and even deeper back, players like Austin Reaves.
That’s why the Lajae Jones stash news lands the way it does. It’s already clear the Warriors are not about to get a Spencer Jones- or Blake Hinson-type wing boost from their two-way group this season.
In Other News...
Steve Kerr Is Pushing Draymond Green Into A Different Warriors Role
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It is a notable wrinkle for a player whose value in Golden State has often come from reading the floor, making quick decisions and living with the occasional turnover because of how much the offense ran through him. If the plan really is to nudge Green toward a more aggressive scoring profile, it would mark a meaningful change in how Kerr imagines the late-career version of one of the Warriors most important voices and most unconventional weapons. [Read more 🡒]
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The timing matters because Golden States issues go well beyond sloppy possessions, and the roster has not been meaningfully reshaped to ease the burden on Kerrs core. The front office has largely stood pat, leaving the team to make do with what it has while trying to squeeze cleaner play out of an imperfect group. In that sense, the turnover message is less a cure than a reminder of how little margin the Warriors have left when the supporting cast is thin and the standard around Curry and Green is finally getting stricter. [Read more 🡒]
Buddy Hields Latest Move Says A Lot About His Post-Warriors Slide
Buddy Hields latest stop underscores how quickly a veteran shooter can slide from a meaningful role into a much thinner lane. After a reduced stint with the Hawks following his time with Golden State, Hield has now been moved again, this time as part of a deal that sent him and Ryan Nembhard to Charlotte in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith.
The move leaves Hield heading into a situation that does not appear especially friendly for his playing time, with the Hornets already stocked on the wing. Charlotte is also reportedly waiving Nembhard, another sign that this trade was more about reshaping the roster than carving out a clear lane for everyone involved, and it puts Hield in a spot where he will have to fight just to find steady minutes. [Read more 🡒]