Dillon Jones Brings Great Positional Rebounding to OKC Thunder

The Thunder were one of the NBA's least reliable rebounding teams last season, but rookie Dillon Jones seems primed to shore that up.

Dillon Jones is pictured during the Thunder media day at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. / NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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

The 6-foot-5, 240-pounder averaged 20.8 points per game, 9.8 rebounds per game, and 5.2 assists per game across his 31 senior-year games at Weber State University. He was the only Division I player since 2008 to record at least a 30% defensive rebound percentage and 30% assist percentage across a season, doing so last year with a 3.1% steal percentage and 58.6% true shooting percentage.

Jones has maintained great rebounding in the three Thunder preseason contests this week. He tallied five rebounds in 26 minutes against the Spurs, three rebounds in 17 minutes versus the Rockets and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes in last night's Tulsa clash with the New Zealand Breakers. This output equals 9.74 rebounds per 36 minutes — more than every 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, primarily because they lacked positional size. Jones, standing at the height of a guard and playing a wing role, should help reduce that percentage on a nightly basis — he recorded at least five defensive rebounds in 29 out of 31 games last season and at least 10 defensive rebounds in 15 games.

"Rebounding is like a passion stat, I like to call it," said Jones in a February 2023 in-house interview at Weber State. "If you're playing hard, you're gonna just get rebounds. ... You just gotta find something that's gonna make you more appealing than the next person 'cause everyone wants to score."

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

"He would just have me in the gym rebounding," Jones said, "And I remember in the gym he used to tell me, like, 'work on your stuff, work on chasing rebounds, don't let it go this far or this far.' And I used to not want to run 'cross the gym, chasing balls either. So I used to just work on timing it, like knowing it's coming off here, knowing it's coming off here. So while he was getting better on the court, I was getting better rebounding and didn't even know it."

Regardless of how many minutes Jones plays for the Thunder this season, he will be an impactful rebounder whenever he steps onto the floor.

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