Herbert Jones (SF/PF, NO): Week 18 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ROSTERED IN: 56% of leagues

ANALYSIS: We will see how things settle in New Orleans after their high-impact trades this past deadline, but for what it's worth and the little we've watched through Friday, things should remain the same (until Zion is back, at least) for rook Herbert Jones. Jones, who hasn't missed on starting a game of those in which he's appeared for 36 matches and running, spanning all the way back to Nov. 24!

It seems like Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones will stay on the wings, with the latter getting to the paint more than the former given his build. Jones has averaged 30 MPG over the full season, and an even higher 33 MPG since we turned the calendar to 2022. In the past two weeks of play (seven games) Jones has managed to raise his FP/min a bit compared to his prior figure. He's still a below-average player on that front, but given his playing time and his rookie-linked growing pains, that's reasonable.

As I said in the intro paragraph, while Zion remains out there is nothing preventing Jones from keeping racking up minutes. He's putting up numbers on the scoring front (12 PPG from Jan. 1) even though his usage rate is ground-level at 14.5%. Jones is getting low-but-steady boards and dimes, but he's been ridiculous at stealing the rock, seriously. Jones has stolen 38 total possessions since Jan. 1 for an average of 1.9 SPG (and that's not an outlier, his season-long figure stands at 1.5 SPG). The blocks are a little bit more random, but still good for an 0.9 BPG average. All things considered, five players are putting up at least 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks on the full season, and the four not named Herb go by the name of LeBron, Lonzo, Thybulle, and Covington. Not bad company, is it?

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