Warriors All But Admit They Made Draft Mistake with Lajae Jones Stashing

Lajae Jones signed with Pallacanestro Trieste on Monday, which all but guarantees he'll be spending at least one year away from the Golden State Warriors.

The Dubs own Jones' NBA rights. It's possible he develops nicely in Italy and contributes for Golden State in the 2027-28 season and beyond.

But it's more likely that the Warriors are essentially admitting they made a mistake drafting him with the 54th pick.

Now, before you scold me for calling any 54th pick a mistake, I will acknowledge that I understand players taken in the second round—let alone the late second round—have a very low hit rate.

Even if he never plays for the Warriors, Jones' career will not be an indictment on Mike Dunleavy Jr.'s draft reputation. If anything, Dunleavy has done better than average in his four drafts as Golden State's GM.

With that said, it's not a good sign that Jones didn't impress enough in summer league to get a two-way contract.

The 2026 Second-Round Pick and Undrafted Data

The draft-and-stash strategy has been around for decades, and there have been plenty of success stories, including Nikola Jokic, Manu Ginobili, Toni Kukoc and Marc Gasol.

But in the case of those four, they had never played college basketball. After being drafted in the second round, they stayed overseas and dominated there before coming to the NBA.

Jones is not like those four. He played four seasons of college basketball and is already 22 years old. I doubt the Warriors drafted him with an expectation they'd stash him. But when he didn't excel in summer league, they made what I'd say is a good choice by giving Graham Ike their final two-way spot. Ike is more ready to contribute in the NBA.

As you'll see below, most teams thought highly enough about their 2026 second-round picks to keep them on the roster via standard contract or two-way contract:

2026 Pick	Player	Contract	Team
No. 31	Bruce Thornton	Standard	Rockets
No. 32	Richie Saunders	Unsigned	Grizzlies
No. 33	Isaiah Evans	Standard	T-Wolves
No. 34	Meleek Thomas	Standard	Cavs
No. 35	Trevon Brazile	Standard	Nuggets
No. 36	Baba Miller	Standard	Clippers
No. 37	Ryan Conwell	Standard	Heat
No. 38	Braden Smith	Two-Way	Pacers
No. 39	Jack Kayil	Draft-and-Stash	Knicks
No. 40	Dillon Mitchell	Two-Way	Celtics
No. 41	Otega Oweh	Two-Way	Thunder
No. 42	Ja'Kobi Gillespie	Two-Way	Spurs
No. 43	Tyler Bilodeau	Two-Way	Nets
No. 44	Maliq Brown	Two-Way	Spurs
No. 45	Emanuel Sharp	Standard	Kings
No. 46	Felix Okpara	Two-Way	Wizards
No. 47	Tyler Nickel	Unsigned	Knicks
No. 48	Tobi Lawal	Two-Way	Mavs
No. 49	Bryce Hopkins	Two-Way	Nuggets
No. 50	Jaden Bradley	Standard	Raptors
No. 51	Izaiyah Nelson	Two-Way	Magic
No. 52	Henri Veesaar	Standard	Hawks
No. 53	Ugonna Onyenso	Two-Way	Pistons
No. 54	Lajae Jones	Draft-and-Stash	Warriors
No. 55	Nick Martinelli	Two-Way	Clippers
No. 56	Vsevelod Ishchenko	Draft-and-Stash	Mavs
No. 57	Narcisse Ngoy	Draft-and-Stash	Clippers
No. 58	Jaron Pierre Jr.	Two-Way	Pelicans
No. 59	Trey Kaufman-Renn	Draft-and-Stash	T-Wolves
No. 60	Malique Lewis	Draft-and-Stash	Bucks

Assuming Richie Saunders and Tyler Nickel sign two-way contracts with the teams that drafted them—which is very likely—22 of the first 23 second-round picks will have gotten a standard or two-way contract.

Jones starts a run of five of the last seven players getting the draft-and-stash treatment, which one might argue speaks to the 2026 draft lacking depth in the late second round.

However, 14 undrafted players have received two-way contracts so far. Among them were summer league standouts Quadir Copeland (Rockets), Tre Donaldson (Heat) and Ike.

The point is the Warriors had better options, but they misfired.

Ike's Emergence Softens Blow, But Jones Decision Still Presents Problem

It's fair to say that if the Warriors a) draft Ike with the 54th pick and b) lose Jones to an overseas team after giving him a training camp contract, an article like this one about missing on Jones likely never gets written.

Ike showed in summer league that he should have been drafted. In that way, the Warriors have already made up for their mistake.

But regardless of how Ike performs this season, it's worth dissecting the thought process on Jones.

The Warriors have a major need for organizational wing depth. In their two-way ranks, they have Malevy Leons, who has the defensive instincts to play the 3 and 4 but lacks the three-point shooting and general offensive talent to fill Golden State's wing minutes capably.

In a perfect world, the Warriors get a wing prospect who can take Leons' two-way spot and also still end up with Ike.

At 6'6", Copeland has the size to try out at the wing. He played more of a facilitating role in college, but he went 6-of-11 from three and had 13 steals in five summer league games.

The Hornets decided 6'7" undrafted wing Michael Ajayi was worth a two-way. His poor perimeter shooting will probably cap his ceiling, but he's a relentless rebounder who had nine combined steals and blocks in five summer league games.

Both would have had a good chance to beat out Leons and land a Warriors two-way if they were taken with the 54th pick.

I readily acknowledge it's hard to find wings with three-and-D potential in the late second round. That the Warriors didn't find one ready to help immediately isn't shocking.

But it is a missed opportunity nonetheless.

With Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody out for several months with knee injuries, the Warriors are looking for any wing-talent injection they can get.

The Nuggets turned Spencer Jones from an undrafted afterthought into a rotation wing. The Jazz did the same with Blake Hinson. That's just looking at the last two years. There are plenty of other examples (Austin Reaves, etc.) of late second-rounders and undrafted players making waves if we go further back.

With the Lajae Jones stash news, it's already clear that the Warriors won't be getting a Spencer Jones- or Blake Hinson-like wing-talent injection from their two-way players this season.

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