Herb Jones may not be the first name the Golden State Warriors are circling right now, but he’s the kind of player who forces a team to pause and rethink the board.
New Orleans is still holding a high asking price for the 6'7" wing, at least publicly, even after a report from insider Shamit Dua on his Substack raised questions about Jones’ place in the rotation and how much new head coach Jamahl Mosley values him. For now, the names drawing the most attention have been Dejounte Murray, Yves Missi, and Jordan Poole, with each offering some level of fit for Golden State depending on how the situation unfolds.
Still, Jones is hard to ignore if the Warriors strike out elsewhere. If they can’t land Missi with the Kristaps Porzingis contract, they’d need to stay alert on Jones, because the idea of him as a 3-and-D addition is exactly the sort of clean fit this roster doesn’t have enough of.
The problem is that Golden State’s frontcourt already comes with a stack of questions, and Jones would only add another layer to them. Yaxel Lendeborg has been proving himself as a legitimate starter, and there are already bigger-picture decisions waiting for the Warriors when Jimmy Butler comes back.
Does Gui Santos move to the bench? If the team somehow adds a center before the trade deadline, does Draymond Green end up there instead?
Jones would make sense in theory. He would also force the Warriors to sort through a frontcourt puzzle that is already getting crowded.
And Jones is not the cleanest offensive solution, either. Over the past couple of seasons, he hasn’t produced much consistent scoring, which is part of why Missi or Trey Murphy III might be more attractive targets for Golden State. But if the Warriors could get Jones for some combination of his $14 million salary - whether that means the Porzingis contract or a package of Moody and Georges Niang’s - plus only a modest amount of draft capital, he would still be the kind of player who could round out a lineup featuring Lendeborg and Green.
The bigger point is that Jones might even be available at the right time. He’s not starting or closing in New Orleans, and under this new coaching staff he’s down to a career-low 17.5 minutes a game. If that trend keeps going, the Pelicans at least have to consider moving him at some point this season.
But Golden State can’t evaluate Jones in a vacuum. Right now, Lendeborg, Santos, and Green already look like a workable small-ball group.
The issue is what happens when Butler returns. That trio doesn’t appear to offer enough spacing on a night-to-night basis, even if Lendeborg keeps building his reputation as a perimeter shooter over the next couple of months.
Sliding Green to the bench would require a floor-spacing center to replace him. Putting Santos in for Butler would also take away too much offensively, assuming Butler comes back at even 60% of his usual level.
That’s where Jones becomes a trickier fit than he first appears. In theory, he could handle the three while Lendeborg slides to the four.
But then what happens to Butler? Moving Lendeborg to the bench is off the table given how he’s playing right now, and Jones arriving just to be parked on the sideline doesn’t really solve anything.
So yes, Jones belongs on the list of players Golden State should monitor. His profile still fits a clear need. But he also shines a light on the Warriors’ bigger dilemma: any frontcourt move now has to work not just in the moment, but when Butler is back in the mix.
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That kind of performance changes the conversation around what Golden State should be chasing next. The Warriors are still exploring trade possibilities, including Kristaps Porzingis, but the bigger question may be whether they want a center who brings more upside and trust than the current bench options. Yves Missi of the New Orleans Pelicans has emerged as a reported target, and the appeal is obvious: if Green can keep covering for the present, the Warriors can afford to be more selective about the future. [Read more 🡒]