New Orleans Pelicans: Is Herb Jones untouchable in a trade?

The New Orleans Pelicans got the steal of the draft when they took Herb Jones in the second round, as he went on to make the All-Rookie team and is already one of the best wing defenders in the NBA.

The Pelicans have had a relatively quiet offseason by their standards, but keep getting mentioned in these Kevin Durant rumors, which are starting to get annoying quite frankly.

The most recent ones claim the Pelicans are shopping Brandon Ingram along with Herb Jones and a slew of draft picks, which seems highly unlikely and I’m pretty sure Pelicans’ fans would be irate if it happened.

I can say with some amount of certainty that the Pelicans are not going to trade Brandon Ingram, but what about Herb Jones, would he be untouchable in a trade if New Orleans was trying to add another star?

New Orleans Pelicans: Is Herb Jones untouchable? Yes and no.

Let’s face it, we all know that no NBA player is truly untouchable in a trade, as we’ve seen superstars traded away for various reasons, so of course Jones could be included in the right deal.

But it would have to be a pretty great deal, as Herb has one of the best value contracts in the NBA for his production, which is exactly what you need when you have a payroll that will soon have three guys making upwards of $30 million per season.

All three of those guys are going to want plenty of shots as well, so having players like Jones, who can contribute big without having plays called for them, is paramount for teams that want to contend.

He’s also shown that he can defend the other team’s best player night after night, which is another important quality when you consider the Pels’ “Big 3” isn’t great defensively.

When you factor in his low cost, and the fact that the Pelicans can have him locked up to a reasonable contract for the foreseeable future, you could argue that Jones is the best value in the entire NBA, as even other good players on rookie deals are still making more than Herb.

That being said, championship windows close quickly and if the Pelicans had a chance to add a fourth star to this squad, they would be one of the frontrunners to win a title next season. If they could trade for Kevin Durant without giving up BI or Zion (it’s not happening, just using it as an example) then Herb would almost certainly be included.

It would be an extremely tough loss, but a guy like Durant shifts the title odds and as good as Jones is, he doesn’t.

The Pelicans aren’t shopping Herb Jones and it would take the perfect deal for him to be traded anytime soon. He’s pretty close to untouchable for a player in his second season, which is saying a lot in a league where stars get traded far more often than they used to.