‘Not on Herb’: How Pelicans rookie Herb Jones has become one of the NBA’s top up-and-coming defenders
There are several physical traits teams try to identify when looking for potential shutdown defenders.
Some like big men who take up a lot of space. Some like rangy wings with long arms or pesky guards with quick feet.
For Pelicans rookie Herb Jones, one intangible outweighs all those factors.
“To be great on defense, you have to really want it,” Jones told The Athletic. “You have to play with a different kind of aggression, a different kind of desire. I take pride in always being the guy who’s ready to lay it all out there for my teammates. That’s what I care about the most.”
Jones, whose favorite player growing up was former Grizzlies defensive specialist Tony Allen, was mostly an afterthought coming into the season as a 23-year-old rookie second-round pick from Alabama. After the Pelicans took him 35th overall in July’s draft, he came off the bench for their NBA Summer League squad in Las Vegas, and expectations were predictably low at the beginning of the regular season. But the longer he spent around the team, the more Pelicans players and coaches took note of his presence.
Fellow rookie Trey Murphy III gave Jones the nickname “Straitjacket” after his defensive performance in summer league. During voluntary workouts in Nashville over the summer, several members of the team marveled at the way Jones defended different matchups and raised the intensity of scrimmages whenever he was on the floor.
“He was blocking shots on the perimeter, jumping passing lanes all over the place,” Pelicans assistant Fred Vinson told The Athletic. “After Nashville, we knew he was going to be a player. We didn’t know if he would contribute immediately. But we knew he had a future.”
Vinson has been tasked with coordinating the defense under first-year coach Willie Green, and the longtime Pels assistant jokes that adding Jones “makes my job a whole lot easier.”
A quarter of the way into the season, Jones has become the most fascinating and savvy defender in New Orleans because of his versatility and high IQ. While he does have the size (6 foot 8) and length to match what coaches are looking for in 3-and-D wings, his ability to read the floor and see plays before they happen separate him from other players at his position.
And despite being a rookie, it seems as if he’s always one step ahead when the game is moving at warp speed. He currently leads all rookies in deflections (57) and steals (29) and is second among rookies in blocks (12). In the past three games, he’s racked up a total of 11 steals and joined Chris Paul as the only rookies in franchise history with 3-plus steals in three straight games. Over that same stretch, his move into the starting lineup has helped steady a struggling New Orleans defense, and it’s safe to bet he’ll remain with the starting group for the foreseeable future.
It’s been shocking to see how much more competent the Pelicans (5-17 ) have looked whenever Jones is on the floor. New Orleans has a defensive rating of 104.3 when Jones is on the court, which would be equivalent to a top-5 unit. When he isn’t out there, the Pelicans’ defensive rating drops to 114.4, just slightly better than Memphis’ league-worst mark.
Getting a young player with Jones’ level of versatility and tenacity with a second-round pick may be the best move David Griffin and the Pels front office have pulled off since Zion Williamson came to town. And on a team full of young players who often look lost on defense, Jones has become essential to the rotation as New Orleans struggles to stay afloat until its star returns.
“His basketball IQ is special, his feel for how to play, where to be,” Vinson said of Jones. “His overall awareness is unbelievable for a guy that young. He’s never been in an NBA system (or) played against NBA teams. Generally, it takes guys the course of a season to see the pictures. He sees the pictures. That’s an advantage he has. It’s not something you can really teach.”
Jones’ activity on the defensive end is constant. He’s always reading opponents’ sets and calculating how to give his team an advantage on defense. He credits his ability to process information on the floor at a rapid pace to the countless lessons learned from his father, Walter Jones Sr., who coached him in high school. Jones also says his years playing free safety throughout his childhood taught him how to trust his instincts and react while the ball is in the air.
It’s clear those lessons are already impacting what he’s doing at the NBA level to disrupt opposing offenses.
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Jones has a rare understanding of spacing and timing during pick-and-roll situations, and he’s already mastering how to play passing lanes and when to help off of his assignments to make plays.
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He’s finding ways to make life difficult when the ball is in his area, and teams are learning how quickly he’s able to sniff out ballhandlers who aren’t precise with their movement and decisions.
After attempting to bring Jones along slowly at the start of the season, Green has leaned into the rookie being one of the players who needs to play heavy minutes every night for this team to compete.
“We have a saying: ‘Not on Herb,’ ” Green said. “For him to be a rookie, his instincts defensively and offensively (are great). He’s always in the right place. He’s making it tough on people.”
The biggest challenge for most young defenders is learning what it takes — and how impossible it can be at times — to slow down elite scorers at this level. It’s been a challenge Jones has been ready to face when the team has asked, and he’s held his own reasonably well for someone this early in his career.
Per Synergy, he’s holding opponents to 33.3 percent shooting in isolation situations, which ranks No. 3 among rookies. Cleveland’s Even Mobley (23.8 percent) and Sacramento’s Davion Mitchell (25 percent) are the only two ahead of him.
What makes Jones even more interesting isn’t just how effective he can be going toe to toe with another team’s best player. It’s the fact that he can take on this responsibility against a wide variety of No. 1 options. He has played just 19 games in his NBA career, but he’s already been asked to guard everyone from Trae Young to Devin Booker to Julius Randle, and thee Pelicans coaching staff has been in awe of how many different matchups he’s been able to handle when called upon.
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In back-to-back games against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City over the weekend, Jones held former All-Star Donovan Mitchell to 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting when he was matched up against him as his primary defender, per NBA.com matchup data.
Of course, there will be nights when players get the best of him. In Jones’ first real action during the second game of the season, Bulls star Zach LaVine welcomed him to the NBA by scoring 24 of his 32 points. And Jones can be susceptible to rookie mistakes. His minutes have been cut short due to foul trouble in a few games. He got caught out of position a few times because he was so intent on making a play outside of his area. Those are adjustments he can make over time.
The biggest questions moving forward will be how Jones holds up in some of these individual matchups and if he can be the kind of defender who consistently slows down top-flight scorers around the league. Guarding wings shouldn’t be an issue, but how will he do if the Pelicans task him with defending smaller guards like Ja Morant and Damian Lillard? Will he be able to hold his own physically against bigger forwards like LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard?
Jones will have to answer those questions throughout the season, but it’s encouraging to see how much New Orleans is willing to throw him in the fire so he can learn.
“It’s all about your mentality. Whoever the team needs me to guard, I’m willing to take that on with no fear,” Jones said. “Whether it be a Trae Young or a Julius Randle, if my teammates believe in me to do it, I’ve got to do what I can to prove them right. I just look at (my opponent) as another player.
“I don’t try to put people above or beneath me. Once we’re on that court, we’re equals. It’s not about the names anymore. It’s about what you’re going to do on the court tonight.”
Vinson added: “It’s been a tremendous asset for us. Since he’s been here, he’s guarded one through five for us. It’s very rare to trust a rookie with those kind of matchups.”
Soon, New Orleans will have to determine where Jones fits when the face of the franchise finally comes back from his broken foot. Will Green be willing to start Jones, Williamson and Brandon Ingram together? In Williamson’s first two seasons, the best perimeter defenders in New Orleans were guards (Jrue Holiday, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart), which was a tough obstacle when going against guys like James, Leonard and Kevin Durant. The Pelicans were often severely undersized and unable to slow down rangy wings who could score at will.
But with Jones added to the mix, the Pelicans will be able to play small frontcourts at the ends of games, with the rookie at center and leading a switch-everything defense. The Pelicans haven’t assembled the personnel to put those lineups on the floor around Williamson in his first two seasons. Now they can, and they’ll soon learn how effective they will be — and how much Jones will be able to cover up some of the defensive deficiencies we’ve seen from the two best players on this team.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing what it looks like when we do have all of our guys healthy,” Vinson said. “Herb will be able to lessen the burden on those guys, and we’ll be able to do some different things with our defensive schemes. It’s going to be fun to see how those guys work together and try to bring the best out of each other.”
‘Not on Herb’: How Pelicans rookie Herb Jones has become one of the NBA’s top up-and-coming defenders
There are several physical traits teams try to identify when looking for potential shutdown defenders.
Some like big men who take up a lot of space. Some like rangy wings with long arms or pesky guards with quick feet.
For Pelicans rookie Herb Jones, one intangible outweighs all those factors.
“To be great on defense, you have to really want it,” Jones told The Athletic. “You have to play with a different kind of aggression, a different kind of desire. I take pride in always being the guy who’s ready to lay it all out there for my teammates. That’s what I care about the most.”
Jones, whose favorite player growing up was former Grizzlies defensive specialist Tony Allen, was mostly an afterthought coming into the season as a 23-year-old rookie second-round pick from Alabama. After the Pelicans took him 35th overall in July’s draft, he came off the bench for their NBA Summer League squad in Las Vegas, and expectations were predictably low at the beginning of the regular season. But the longer he spent around the team, the more Pelicans players and coaches took note of his presence.
Fellow rookie Trey Murphy III gave Jones the nickname “Straitjacket” after his defensive performance in summer league. During voluntary workouts in Nashville over the summer, several members of the team marveled at the way Jones defended different matchups and raised the intensity of scrimmages whenever he was on the floor.
“He was blocking shots on the perimeter, jumping passing lanes all over the place,” Pelicans assistant Fred Vinson told The Athletic. “After Nashville, we knew he was going to be a player. We didn’t know if he would contribute immediately. But we knew he had a future.”
Vinson has been tasked with coordinating the defense under first-year coach Willie Green, and the longtime Pels assistant jokes that adding Jones “makes my job a whole lot easier.”
A quarter of the way into the season, Jones has become the most fascinating and savvy defender in New Orleans because of his versatility and high IQ. While he does have the size (6 foot 8) and length to match what coaches are looking for in 3-and-D wings, his ability to read the floor and see plays before they happen separate him from other players at his position.
And despite being a rookie, it seems as if he’s always one step ahead when the game is moving at warp speed. He currently leads all rookies in deflections (57) and steals (29) and is second among rookies in blocks (12). In the past three games, he’s racked up a total of 11 steals and joined Chris Paul as the only rookies in franchise history with 3-plus steals in three straight games. Over that same stretch, his move into the starting lineup has helped steady a struggling New Orleans defense, and it’s safe to bet he’ll remain with the starting group for the foreseeable future.
It’s been shocking to see how much more competent the Pelicans (5-17 ) have looked whenever Jones is on the floor. New Orleans has a defensive rating of 104.3 when Jones is on the court, which would be equivalent to a top-5 unit. When he isn’t out there, the Pelicans’ defensive rating drops to 114.4, just slightly better than Memphis’ league-worst mark.
Getting a young player with Jones’ level of versatility and tenacity with a second-round pick may be the best move David Griffin and the Pels front office have pulled off since Zion Williamson came to town. And on a team full of young players who often look lost on defense, Jones has become essential to the rotation as New Orleans struggles to stay afloat until its star returns.
“His basketball IQ is special, his feel for how to play, where to be,” Vinson said of Jones. “His overall awareness is unbelievable for a guy that young. He’s never been in an NBA system (or) played against NBA teams. Generally, it takes guys the course of a season to see the pictures. He sees the pictures. That’s an advantage he has. It’s not something you can really teach.”
Jones’ activity on the defensive end is constant. He’s always reading opponents’ sets and calculating how to give his team an advantage on defense. He credits his ability to process information on the floor at a rapid pace to the countless lessons learned from his father, Walter Jones Sr., who coached him in high school. Jones also says his years playing free safety throughout his childhood taught him how to trust his instincts and react while the ball is in the air.
It’s clear those lessons are already impacting what he’s doing at the NBA level to disrupt opposing offenses.
视频1
Jones has a rare understanding of spacing and timing during pick-and-roll situations, and he’s already mastering how to play passing lanes and when to help off of his assignments to make plays.
视频2
He’s finding ways to make life difficult when the ball is in his area, and teams are learning how quickly he’s able to sniff out ballhandlers who aren’t precise with their movement and decisions.
After attempting to bring Jones along slowly at the start of the season, Green has leaned into the rookie being one of the players who needs to play heavy minutes every night for this team to compete.
“We have a saying: ‘Not on Herb,’ ” Green said. “For him to be a rookie, his instincts defensively and offensively (are great). He’s always in the right place. He’s making it tough on people.”
The biggest challenge for most young defenders is learning what it takes — and how impossible it can be at times — to slow down elite scorers at this level. It’s been a challenge Jones has been ready to face when the team has asked, and he’s held his own reasonably well for someone this early in his career.
Per Synergy, he’s holding opponents to 33.3 percent shooting in isolation situations, which ranks No. 3 among rookies. Cleveland’s Even Mobley (23.8 percent) and Sacramento’s Davion Mitchell (25 percent) are the only two ahead of him.
What makes Jones even more interesting isn’t just how effective he can be going toe to toe with another team’s best player. It’s the fact that he can take on this responsibility against a wide variety of No. 1 options. He has played just 19 games in his NBA career, but he’s already been asked to guard everyone from Trae Young to Devin Booker to Julius Randle, and thee Pelicans coaching staff has been in awe of how many different matchups he’s been able to handle when called upon.
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In back-to-back games against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City over the weekend, Jones held former All-Star Donovan Mitchell to 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting when he was matched up against him as his primary defender, per NBA.com matchup data.
Of course, there will be nights when players get the best of him. In Jones’ first real action during the second game of the season, Bulls star Zach LaVine welcomed him to the NBA by scoring 24 of his 32 points. And Jones can be susceptible to rookie mistakes. His minutes have been cut short due to foul trouble in a few games. He got caught out of position a few times because he was so intent on making a play outside of his area. Those are adjustments he can make over time.
The biggest questions moving forward will be how Jones holds up in some of these individual matchups and if he can be the kind of defender who consistently slows down top-flight scorers around the league. Guarding wings shouldn’t be an issue, but how will he do if the Pelicans task him with defending smaller guards like Ja Morant and Damian Lillard? Will he be able to hold his own physically against bigger forwards like LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard?
Jones will have to answer those questions throughout the season, but it’s encouraging to see how much New Orleans is willing to throw him in the fire so he can learn.
“It’s all about your mentality. Whoever the team needs me to guard, I’m willing to take that on with no fear,” Jones said. “Whether it be a Trae Young or a Julius Randle, if my teammates believe in me to do it, I’ve got to do what I can to prove them right. I just look at (my opponent) as another player.
“I don’t try to put people above or beneath me. Once we’re on that court, we’re equals. It’s not about the names anymore. It’s about what you’re going to do on the court tonight.”
Vinson added: “It’s been a tremendous asset for us. Since he’s been here, he’s guarded one through five for us. It’s very rare to trust a rookie with those kind of matchups.”
Soon, New Orleans will have to determine where Jones fits when the face of the franchise finally comes back from his broken foot. Will Green be willing to start Jones, Williamson and Brandon Ingram together? In Williamson’s first two seasons, the best perimeter defenders in New Orleans were guards (Jrue Holiday, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart), which was a tough obstacle when going against guys like James, Leonard and Kevin Durant. The Pelicans were often severely undersized and unable to slow down rangy wings who could score at will.
But with Jones added to the mix, the Pelicans will be able to play small frontcourts at the ends of games, with the rookie at center and leading a switch-everything defense. The Pelicans haven’t assembled the personnel to put those lineups on the floor around Williamson in his first two seasons. Now they can, and they’ll soon learn how effective they will be — and how much Jones will be able to cover up some of the defensive deficiencies we’ve seen from the two best players on this team.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing what it looks like when we do have all of our guys healthy,” Vinson said. “Herb will be able to lessen the burden on those guys, and we’ll be able to do some different things with our defensive schemes. It’s going to be fun to see how those guys work together and try to bring the best out of each other.”
