Dillon Jones brings great positional rebounds for OKC Thunder

Dillon Jones, Oklahoma City's No. 26 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, joins the team with a well-deserved all-around reputation.

The 6-foot, 240-pound player averaged 20.8 points per game, 9.8 rebounds per game and 5.2 assists per game in his 31 final games at Weber State University. He was the only Division I player since 2008 to post at least a 30% defensive rebound percentage and 30% assist percentage across a season; last year he posted a 3.1% steal percentage and a true Shooting percentage of 58.6%.

Jones grabbed great rebounds in the three Thunder preseason contests this week. He had five rebounds in 26 minutes against the Spurs, three rebounds in 17 minutes against the Rockets and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes last night in Tulsa against the New Zealand Breakers. That output equates to 9.74 rebounds per 36 minutes – more than any player in last year's rotation, including Chet Holmgren.

The 2023-24 Thunder had the fourth-highest opponent offensive rebound percentage (30.2%) in the league, largely because they lacked position size. Jones, standing at guard level and playing a wing role, should help reduce that percentage on a nightly basis – he recorded at least five defensive rebounds in 29 of 31 games and at least 10 defensive rebounds in 15 games last season .

“Rebounding is like a passion statistic, I like to call it,” Jones said in an internal interview at Weber State in February 2023. “If you play hard, all you get is rebounds. … You just have to find something that makes you more attractive than the next person because everyone wants to score.”

Jones credits his brother Eric, who plays professional basketball in Germany, for helping him become a better rebounder.

“He just had me rebounding in the gym,” Jones said, “And I remember him always telling me in the gym, 'Work on your stuff, work on chasing rebounds, don't let it get that far or' until here.' And I didn't want to run around the gym chasing balls, so I just kept working on timing it, like I knew this was going to work and that he was going to be better on the court. I was doing better at rebounding and I didn’t even know it.”

No matter how many minutes Jones plays for the Thunder this season, he will be an effective rebounder every time he steps on the court.

Would you like to join the discussion? Like Thunder on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the reporting.