The Oklahoma City Thunder have been through a lot in the last 48 hours. According to ESPN's Shams Charania, Jalen Williams has been diagnosed with a dislocated left ankle and a fractured fibula, and Cason Wallace has a torn left labrum. This has ended Williams' season and will see Wallace miss an extended period of time. If things couldn’t get any worse, Alex Caruso left the Thunder’s game against the Suns last night with a sprained right ankle.
I just want to wish all three players a speedy and healthy recovery, both mentally and physically. This feels like an appropriate time to also mention that if you’re going through a serious struggle in your life, please reach out to someone. You’re never truly alone.
All that being said, these injuries have led many people across social media, both in Thunder spaces, New Orleans Pelicans spaces, and general NBA spaces, to link the two teams in mock trades. With OKC losing three pivotal wings in a two-game span and Herb Jones' role with the Pelicans feeling nonexistent, many believe he’s a natural target for the Thunder.
A deal that makes sense for all parties
Jones's minutes with the Pelicans have dropped from 28.4 to 17.0 this season, and he no longer starts or closes games. Why, you ask? I’m not sure. You’d think when a team hires a defensive coach like Jamahl Mosley, their best defensive player would play the biggest role of his career. But this is still the New Orleans Pelicans, so why would any decision they make ever make any sense?
Maybe that’s what the conversation between Jones and Joe Dumars that Fletcher Mackel of NBC New Orleans captured at practice on Monday was about.
Interesting 🤨
— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) October 26, 2026
WDSU video from Pelicans practice Monday, Oct. 26
NOLA Executive Vice President Joe Dumars and forward Herb Jones after the workout.
Herb is not starting or closing games and through the first three games (0-3) he's averaging a career low 17 minutes per game. pic.twitter.com/u8ak2q9RBh
Maybe Dumars was simply reassuring Jones of his value to the team. Or a more intriguing theory is that he was talking to Jones about his future with the team. The former seems more likely than the latter, but the video's timing was funny, as it came out in the middle of Pelicans Twitter debating whether Jones should stay or go.
Back to OKC. Jones fits a major need for the Thunder on the wing now as a defensive stopper who can guard multiple positions, handle the ball a bit, and play off the ball offensively.
Sam Presti has a trade exception in the $17-plus million range at his disposal, which would fit Jones's contract perfectly and make a deal easy to get done if OKC did have real interest. A package of Nikola Topić and a future first-round pick for Jones seems like fair value when you factor in he’s had back-to-back down seasons and isn’t a big part of their rotation right now.
For the Pelicans, trading Jones feels like something that has been brewing ever since Joe Dumars extended him in his first offseason with the team. His play has steadily regressed, and he brings far more value to a winning team than to a bottom-feeder like the Pelicans have been recently.
It seems like a very obvious move for both parties to make. For the Thunder, they’d address a need and hopefully get their season back on track. Joe Dumars could add assets back to the cupboard after a tough 0-3 start that probably won’t get any better, and Jones would get a clean slate with a successful organization. I guess we’ll see where this goes.
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