The New Orleans Pelicans are going to have a very different roster around Zion Williamson next season.
Gone are the plodding center and veteran shooting guards who weren’t a fit and in their place are Jonas Valanciunas, Devonte’ Graham and a cast of young hopefuls.
The Pelicans will be much younger, more athletic and hopefully more dynamic this season and one of the wild cards will be 2nd-round pick Herb Jones.
Jones was an elite defender in college, the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, and we saw in Summer League that he can be a disruptive defender who can guard multiple spots.
Jones has some Draymond Green qualities, but he is not the playmaker Green is, so defense won’t be enough to get him into the rotation.
New Orleans Pelicans: Herb Jones needs a league-average 3-point shot
Zion Williamson is a unique player and there are challenges to building a team around him. He’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot more than a traditional power forward, so the best route is likely to surround him with athletic wings who can defend and shoot.
Herb Jones can defend and I don’t think there is any doubt that he can do it at an NBA level, but the question is whether he can do anything else.
Jones shot just 28 percent from 3-point range in his four-year career at Alabama, topping out at 35 percent in his senior season on just 1.7 attempts per game.
The New Orleans Pelicans can’t afford to have a player on the floor who can’t shoot at all, especially when Zion Williamson is in the game, as it will make it easy for other teams to double off the guy they don’t need to guard.
If Herb Jones can hit 35 percent plus this season then I think he’ll get rotation minutes, as the Pelicans could use his defense off the bench. Fred Vinson is renowned for improving shots, as he did with Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, so hopefully he can work his magic on Jones.
The New Orleans Pelicans will need to get a lot from their young guys this season if they want to improve and Herb Jones can be a part of that if he just improves his shot.