Atlanta Hawks: Is Damian Jones worth re-signing?

Damian Jones has been a solid backup center for the first four years of his NBA career, however, is his production worth re-signing for the Atlanta Hawks?

The Atlanta Hawks have Damian Jones’ Bird rights this summer making him a restricted free-agent. Thus, if the Hawks want to re-sign Jones they should hope that no other team offers him very much on the open market.

The 25-year-old center out of Vanderbilt was acquired by the Hawks, along with a 2026 second-round pick, in a trade that sent Omari Spellman to the Golden State Warriors last summer. This season for the Hawks, Jones played in 55 of the Hawks 67 games and he started in 27 of them.

In the 55 games, Jones played for the team he played on average 16.1 minutes per game and averaged 5.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game on .680/.222/.738 shooting splits. Considering his inconsistent role and shear lack of minutes, these are relatively solid numbers for the teams backup center.

However, despite Jones’ relatively solid production, the Atlanta Hawks may simply not have a spot for him in the future. Considering the fact that the Hawks just traded for Clint Capela, just drafted Bruno Fernando and likely want to play John Collins for some minutes at center… there may not be a role for Jones.

Not to mention the fact that the Hawks may be in a position to draft another center in this years draft. Guys like James Wiseman, Onyeka Ogongwu or Vernon Carey Jr. may be on the Hawks draft board, and if that’s the case, there is absolutely no space for Jones.

Even if the Hawks feel like Jones may not have a role on this team anymore, it might still make sense to bring him back. Considering his age and his potential trade value, Jones may be worth keeping as a trade piece at the right price.

There are certainly some young teams out there that are in need of a potential backup center that may be willing to pay a little too much for Damian Jones and if that’s the case, the Hawks need to stay far away. While Jones is a nice player to have on his current contract (roughly $2.3M/year), if he were to be paid any more than $8M/year, the contract would look like an atrocity.

Therefore if the Hawks really do want to bring Jones back, either as a piece for the future, or simply as a trade piece, they really need to be careful not to overpay.

To answer the question at hand… it depends on the price.