{"id":319161,"date":"2026-06-25T08:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:40:17","slug":"2026-nba-draft-warriors-select-florida-states-lajae-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319161\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Draft: Warriors select Florida State\u2019s Lajae Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Mike Dunleavy Jr. has historically squeezed out value from the second round of the NBA Draft, with notable selections such as Trayce Jackson-Davis, Gui Santos, and Will Richard, all of whom have seen rotation minutes under Steve Kerr\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This year\u2019s second-round draftee is Lajae Jones, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound small forward known for his defensive versatility and physical style of play. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Jones built a standout high school career at Duncan U. Fletcher High School before embarking on a dynamic collegiate journey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u200bHe played for Tarleton State and later led Barton Community College to an NJCAA Division I national championship, earning tournament MVP honors. After a stint at St. Bonaventure, Jones transferred to the Florida State Seminoles for the 2025\u201326 season. With the Seminoles, he averaged 12.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, highlighted by a dominant 28-point performance against Duke in the ACC Tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Lauded by scouts as an impact guard and wing defender with top-notch role versatility, Jones \u2013 like new teammate Yaxel Lendeborg \u2013 is aiming to provide value despite working his way up from a JUCO background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Dunleavy Jr. has historically squeezed out value from the second round of the NBA Draft, with notable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,132592],"class_list":["post-319161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-warriors-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}