Kai Jones' net worth in 2023 is around $1 million. The forward/center was a big investment for the Charlotte Hornets, but unfortunately, he looks like another failed project in Charlotte. Jones has limited production in his first two NBA seasons after being a first-round draft choice. Now, after a bizarre offseason, he has requested a trade from the team that had high hopes for him in the 2021 NBA Draft. Jones has loads of talent, but he has had a weird offseason that is putting his career in jeopardy of ending prematurely. The Texas product will need to quickly turn things around if he wants to stick in the NBA. Perhaps his trade request will be granted, and a fresh start becomes just the thing he needs to get back on track. Regardless, we are going to take a closer look at Jones' net worth and NBA career.

Kai Jones' net worth in 2023 (estimate): $1 million

Kai Jones, Charlotte Hornets

As a first-round draft pick, Kai Jones earned himself a decent payday. His rookie deal pays him over $13 million over four years. Nearly all of Jones' net worth comes from his NBA money, but he is quickly falling into a downward spiral and is at risk of losing a job. Still, Kai Jones' net worth in 2023 is around $1 million, according to celebsagewiki.com and abtc.ng. His public trade request may even cause this number to drop if Jones is suspended or fined. A potential fine can be as severe as $150,000.

Kai Jones: career

Kai Jones was a highly touted prospect coming out of the University of Texas. Jones runs like a gazelle and can fly down the court in transition, a rare skillset for a near 7-footer. He was a bit raw coming out of college, as his collegiate statistics weren't impressive, but draft evaluators believed that his skillet would translate to the NBA level and allow him to further bloom.

Jones is a great leaper and excels at catching alley-oops. There was also hope that the big man would be able to play on the perimeter because of his advanced movement skills. There were concerns coming out of college about his ability to score as a post-up scorer, but his athletic traits were impressive enough to look past those concerns. The New York Knicks drafted Jones with the 19th pick in the 2021 draft before immediately trading his draft rights to the Charlotte Hornets.

The high draft pick was viewed as a franchise building block for the young Hornets, but things haven't turned out like he or the team had hoped. Jones has spent the majority of his time developing in the G-League with the Greensboro Swarm. Jones has shown flashes on the Hornets' G-League affiliate, but overall, he has underperformed against the inferior competition. When he has gotten time on the big league roster, things haven't been pretty either. Jones averaged 1.0 point per game his rookie year and 3.7 points per game in year two. He 0nly has 613 minutes of court time at the NBA level.

Kai Jones: 2023 offseason drama

Jones was relatively quiet and under the radar in his first two years in the NBA. That changed in the 2023 offseason. Jones spent the entire offseason posting questionable things onto social media, and it made many question his well-being.

Jones' interesting offseason started with a strange Instagram Live that saw the young player incoherently babble in front of thousands of NBA fans. Many came to the conclusion that Jones was under the influence of drugs, but Jones shut down those rumors and claimed he was only having fun.

Despite his subpar stats, Jones has posted on numerous occasions that he is the greatest player of all time. While a remark like that can be brushed off as a joke, Jones seems to fully believe it to be true. The center also seemed to disassociate himself from his organization, unfollowing numerous teammates and even calling out certain teammates that had earned playing time over him. Jones made a number of other questionable decisions on social media as well, including challenging random basketball fans to games of 1v1.

https://twitter.com/242_jones/status/1711463763453378954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1711463763453378954%7Ctwgr%5E077f9bd762704a9610efa84b5a690713baaecc82%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwp.clutchpoints.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D2462199action%3Dedit

The offseason full of drama culminated with Jones requesting a trade via his Twitter. It was a not-so-shocking outcome to a marriage that seemed destined to fail. Now, fans will wait and see if the Hornets will accept Jones' request or if the team will try to salvage the relationship in hopes of turning things around. The former seems much more likely of an option, but the team is unlikely to receive a significant return in trade.

After his antics all summer long, many still believed that the peculiar offseason was just a troll job to find entertainment by Jones. The trade request all but ends that theory, and Jones will need to quickly prove he belongs in the NBA as few teams are going to be willing to give a chance to an unproven player that is quickly becoming a locker room distraction.