The Golden State Warriors got their first win of the season in Denver, and the good news went past Stephen Curry. Yaxel Lendeborg had 31 points and 12 rebounds, and the supporting cast looked real for a night. The wing rotation is still thin, and SES has a trade that fixes it without waiting for December.
The Deal and the Math
Golden State sends Moses Moody ($12,500,000) and Gui Santos ($4,629,630) to New Orleans for Herb Jones, whose 2026-27 salary is $14,898,786. That is $17,129,630 going out against $14,898,786 coming back, so the Warriors shed $2,230,844. All three figures are from Basketball-Reference’s contract tables.
Shedding salary is not incidental here; it is what makes the trade legal. Golden State’s payroll is above the first apron, and teams above that line are held to dollar-for-dollar salary matching — they cannot take back a single dollar more than they send. This deal sends out more than it brings back, so it clears that test with room.
The second constraint is the hard cap. The Warriors are capped at the second apron, $221,686,000, because they used the taxpayer mid-level exception to sign De’Anthony Melton. A team hard-capped there cannot cross that number for any reason all season. A trade that reduces payroll by $2.23 million moves them away from the ceiling rather than toward it.
The one restriction that could bite does not apply. Combining two players into a single trade is barred for teams over the second apron, and Golden State is under it. They can aggregate Moody and Santos; a team on the other side of that line could not.
Santos is in the deal because the cheaper version does not work. Moody plus Will Richard ($2,150,917) comes to $14,650,917, which is $247,869 short of Jones’ salary. Under dollar-for-dollar matching, a gap that small is enough to kill a trade.
Everyone Is Eligible Right Now
The calendar is the reason to act. Most of the Warriors’ offseason signings cannot be traded until Dec. 15, and this deal does not need any of them. Moody is on a rookie extension signed well before this season, Santos signed his extension in February, and the six-month restriction on Jones’ extension has long since passed. The trade deadline is in early February.
Why New Orleans Listens
The Pelicans would be moving a player whose contract is about to get a great deal more expensive. Jones’ extension pays $20,858,300 in 2027-28, $22,526,964 in 2028-29 and $24,195,628 in 2029-30. Trading him now replaces all of that with two younger wings on cheaper deals, and clears the back end of the commitment entirely.
Whether New Orleans wants that trade is a separate question from whether it works on paper, and nothing reported establishes their appetite for a two-for-one or whether they have the roster spot for it. Treat the Pelicans’ side as the open variable.
Why Golden State Should Pay It
Moody will not play for a while, and Curry is 38. Every week of this season that passes without a healthy wing rotation is a week of the Curry window spent, and the lineup churn through the first four games was a problem of availability more than coaching. A trade is the one lever that changes who is actually dressed.
Santos is the real cost, and it hurts. He started in Denver and has played well in Jimmy Butler’s spot. But Jones is the kind of perimeter defender a Curry-led team cannot develop in-house, and the Lakers spent last month circling him for the same reason — SES argued in September that a Herb Jones wait only pays off if New Orleans cracks first. Golden State would be the team that stops waiting.
With Butler’s $56,832,773 coming off the books after this season, there is room on next year’s payroll for the first step of Jones’ raise.
The risk is his shooting. If it does not come back, the Warriors are paying $20.9 million next season for a defense-only wing. That is real, and it is also exactly why his price is where it is.
The Price Where This Flips
Two rotation players and relief from three escalating years is a fair offer for a wing New Orleans is not building around. If the Pelicans want a first-round pick on top of that, Golden State should walk and revisit on Dec. 15, when the rest of the roster becomes tradable and more combinations open up.
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