Trade: Colby Jones to OKC for Dillon Jones, ‘29 SRP

[doclinkin]

Funny. I like it. But that’s the guy OKC took when we leapfrogged them and took Kyshawn. I guess our intel was correct they actually wanted George instead.

Dillon Jones’ draft year stats were a Swiss Army knife. He rebounded passed scored played 2guard and power forward. I’m happy to add him to our squad to see how he can help. Even if we stock our GoGo team I think we are going to have some scrappy tough scrimmages and a fun summer league squad.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Not often you can trade a Jones for a Jones.

At 6'5", he seems a tad undersized for a SF. He didnt get much run on OKC, understandably given their depth, and their win-now strategy. I am encouraged since he is an OKC pick. Getting another 2nd rnd pick in trade is a plus. Colby was not going to get much burn with us, given our 39752 guards and off-guards on the roster. So this is probably a good move for him too.

A hearty welcome to Dillon.

“Dort-like girth” — I like it. Both it and your phrasing.

This brings back a memory.

My son was playing in a Pop Warner bigger boy league. The youth sports director, a Samoan former NFL player, and I had a talk about my then 197-lb 12 or 13-year old. I asked him about my boy.

He enthusiastically said, "The girth!". That was the first time I heard the term used in a non-sex reference.

(This was in 2013, and my kid didn't grow much taller than the 5'4" he was. His 13 shoes are probably 15 or 16 now, but he's around 5'9" or 5 10" and over 300 lbs)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Fuamatu-Ma%CA%BBafala

Girth is going to serve DQ well in a few years.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

6'11" wingspan he'll probably play some small ball 4 since he has some junk in his trunk.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

Definitely has it in his bag, IMO..

He and Champagnie play taller than their heights.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Watch on YouTube

He's not an NBA player. To the gogo he goes...

He was injured last season, and he went to a fully loaded team.

He's the best kind of late first round pick. He fits the archetype.

https://theoutletpass.medium.com/the-winger-dawkins-principle-cb62b1e4e713

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Funny. I like it. But that’s the guy OKC took when we leapfrogged them and took Kyshawn. I guess our intel was correct they actually wanted George instead.

Dillon Jones’ draft year stats were a Swiss Army knife. He rebounded passed scored played 2guard and power forward. I’m happy to add him to our squad to see how he can help. Even if we stock our GoGo team I think we are going to have some scrappy tough scrimmages and a fun summer league squad.

He certainly can't hurt.

Grant Williams and David Roddy are comparisons according to this scouting report.

https://www.si.com/nba/draft/prospect-profiles/nba-draft-scouting-report-weber-states-dillon-jones

[doclinkin]

Crazy we have FIVE 1st round players from the 2024 draft. I guess they weren’t kidding when they said they thought it was a deep draft.

I mean that’s one way to do the PIF strategy of drafting everybody to see who is good. You don’t have minutes to play everybody but if you can stow them on other teams well then, you’re good. let someone else season them for a year until you have PT available. Then go get them. A retroactive draft and stash.

[doclinkin]

That said free agency isn’t open yet so who knows if this is real or if it is part of another move or series of moves.

[Dat2U]

Holy ****!

I wanted Dillon Jones last year!

And OKC had to use a pick to dump him. The value of these older draftees drops dramatically if they don't show much their rookie year - not to say that he had much of a chance considering OKC's loaded roster.

[closg00]

Well this was nice to wake up to, went back to see the reaction on draft night. Someone commented:
"Jones is one of 4 players since 1992 to have 1,500 Points, 1,000 Rebounds, 400 Assist and 200 Steals in their Career"

Watch on YouTube

[closg00]

Interesting to listen to the OKC view, not so nice

Watch on YouTube

[9 and 20]

The Ringer's 2024 review - https://nbadraft.theringer.com/2024/draft-grades

Dillon Jones -

Oklahoma City Thunder
B
David Roddy in 2022. Kobe Brown in 2023. And now Jones. Another year, another bullyball playmaker in the first round! Jones was a unique offensive initiator in college, putting together some remarkable averages in his time at Weber State. Jones is densely built, but can get extremely low with his body on drives, trucking his way into the paint at will. The Thunder need to shore up their rebounding in the worst way, but evidently they aren’t opposed to finding creative solutions across the positional spectrum, as they reportedly gave up five second-rounders for the chance to take him at 26. Jones is an exceptional rebounder for his height, which combined with his ball-handling and passing ability make him an interesting transition weapon. Scaling down his high-usage creation duties and finding his ancillary role on the Thunder will be his biggest puzzle. If his on-ball skills don’t quite translate to the NBA given his lack of foot speed and vertical explosiveness, his intriguing skill set might end up laying dormant.

Bully-ball point guard with an unorthodox style of play given his size.

[DukeLecker]

I have no earthly idea how they’ll be able to keep all these guys. To say nothing about playing them all. Teams barely practice during the season, so it’s not like they’ll really be able to develop all the youngsters.

[nate33]

6'4.5" barefoot with a 6'11" wingspan. 8'4.5" standing reach. That's decent length for a reserve wing.
33.5" vertical. Not a skywalker, but that's to be expected, since he's carrying a little extra.

FWIW, he almost surely tanked the standing reach to boost his vertical leap numbers. If you go back and look at guys in the mid-2000's (before tanking the standing reach became routine), 6'-4" and 6'-5" guys with 6'-11"-ish wingspans tended to have standing reaches around 8'-8" or 8'-9". So assume he plays a bit bigger, but that he is also a little less springy.

[nate33]

I have no earthly idea how they’ll be able to keep all these guys. To say nothing about playing them all. Teams barely practice during the season, so it’s not like they’ll really be able to develop all the youngsters.

That's what the G-League is for.

Last year, Dillon Jones played 568 G-League minutes (18 games at 31 minutes a game). He also played 551 NBA minutes on the deepest team in the league, albeit a team that played a lot of garbage time.

FWIW, Dillon's per 36 averages in G-League were:
15.2 points
8.0 rebounds
5.8 assists
3.2 turnovers
1.0 steals
.525 TS%
.275 3P%

The shooting is alarming, but the rest looks pretty good.

[Ed Wood]

OKC has the luxury of not having the luxury of committing a roster spot this way, so I don't find the decision on their part that surprising. [Un]Fortunately Washington has a lot of free time in its schedule and even if Jones, Dillon was pretty bad last year he had very passionate fans in people who I think very highly of as draft analysts going into the year. He's also kind of a better fit in a hypothetical world where both he and some number of the other young players on the roster work out. Jones, Colby is more directly in competition with players like Johnson & Johnson and doesn't naturally offset a player archetype that the Wizards have heavily invested in - the Coulibaly/George/Riley archetype - the way Jones, D. does do.

[Rafael122]

Looks like a mini BOYD move. OKC clears a roster spot; we take a flyer on a youngster. Seems low risk.

How is OKC clearing a roster spot if they are taking on Colby Jones?

Apparently Colby’s contract was non guaranteed for this upcoming season. So he was waived and OKC just extended Jaylen Williams so it was a cap move where the purpose was to extend Williams.

So it begs the question, can you trade a player with non-guarantee and then waive him? It sounds like you don’t have to guarantee the contract?

[payitforward]

In short, it looks like a pretty good move. We'll see!

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Interesting to listen to the OKC view, not so nice

Watch on YouTube

Gotta agree with this guy. This is kind of a nothing burger. He didn’t really show anything at the NBA or G league level. He didn’t work out, so Presti used one of his 18 remaining 2nd rounders to clear him out and provide some cap and roster flexibility. For the Wiz, he’s almost certainly not going to work out, so essentially we just bought another second rounder for a bit of cap space.

Just asset accumulation. It’s mostly about the pick. I hope we can resign Colby. He was at least a good G leaguer and did ok in his limited NBA minutes.

[nate33]

Looks like a mini BOYD move. OKC clears a roster spot; we take a flyer on a youngster. Seems low risk.

How is OKC clearing a roster spot if they are taking on Colby Jones?

Apparently Colby’s contract was non guaranteed for this upcoming season. So he was waived and OKC just extended Jaylen Williams so it was a cap move where the purpose was to extend Williams.

So it begs the question, can you trade a player with non-guarantee and then waive him? It sounds like you don’t have to guarantee the contract?

I think you can before the July Moratorium.

The only part that confuses me is I thought teams had to make the decision on guaranteeing the 3rd year of a rookie contract guy at the start of the second season. I didn't realize that decision could be postponed until the last day of his second season.

[Rafael122]

How is OKC clearing a roster spot if they are taking on Colby Jones?

Apparently Colby’s contract was non guaranteed for this upcoming season. So he was waived and OKC just extended Jaylen Williams so it was a cap move where the purpose was to extend Williams.

So it begs the question, can you trade a player with non-guarantee and then waive him? It sounds like you don’t have to guarantee the contract?

I think you can before the July Moratorium.

The only part that confuses me is I thought teams had to make the decision on guaranteeing the 3rd year of a rookie contract guy at the start of the second season. I didn't realize that decision could be postponed until the last day of his second season.

…so can we trade Holmes to a team looking to clear room in exchange for picks? $13 mil salary, $250K is guaranteed.