MEASUREMENTS

Height: 6’4.5″ (without shoes)
Wingspan: 6’11″
Standing reach: 8’4.5″
Weight: 236.8 pounds
Standing vertical: 26.5″
Max vertical: 33.5″

BACKGROUND

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Dillon Jones has been the unquestioned top dog in the Big Sky for the last three seasons. Earning three first-team All-Conference selections, two All-Tournament selections and a 2023-24 Player of the Year award, Jones has dominated the college landscape. As a senior, he capped off his run at Weber State by averaging a career-high 20.8 points, adding 9.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2 steals per game on 48.9/32.4/85.7 shooting splits.

The only Weber State alumni currently playing in the NBA? Damian Lillard. The program rarely churns out pro talent, but Jones won’t be the first Wildcat to break through to the next level.

Strengths

Do-it-all wing. Versatility on both ends of the court is Jones’ calling card–played all five positions in college (sometimes on the same possession) and should be 3/4 versatile in the NBA. Very good ball-handler, keeps it tight to his waist and changes speed/direction, plays with pace and compromises defenders with escape and hostage dribbles.

Adept playmaker with court vision and passing talent for his position–one-handed live-dribble passes, bounce passes to rollers and cutters, skips to corners/wings in the shooter’s pocket (maybe the best skip passer in the class), size/strength to get into defenders’ space and make tough angle passes in traffic. Very well-rounded playmaker for his size. Toggled between point guard, wing and center in college, often in-game. Fully prepared to fill multiple roles at the NBA level given experience and effectiveness in college.

Can initiate a second-unit offense in the NBA or slide off-ball and fill in the gaps as a cutter, spot-up scorer, and interior finisher. Good ball-screen playmaker, buy into the shooting indicators and think he’s got enough gravity to leverage it for downhill scoring and playmaking.

Steadily improved the shot during four collegiate seasons. Nearly 42% at the start of 2024 this year but tanked to 32% by season’s end and shot just 26.7% on unguarded jumpers per Synergy. Given career-82.3 FT%, finishing touch and volume, would bet that rises in a better context and levels out his overall 3P%.

Averaged 21/10/5, led conference in two of three categories, plus 2 steals per game. Statistical productivity in college checks every box–whole lotta green on Jones’ BartTorvik page.

Can spot-up and shoot/drive/pass off a closeout, drives and gets to his spots with great pace in the mid range, works well using hop steps and long gathers/strides to create open space. Good touch finishing over his shoulder in the post/mid-paint and is a quick cutter off-ball, not a lob threat but great below-the-rim finisher. Shoulders carve out space, excellent footwork and aggressively rises up to beat contests. Advanced post game for a wing, good touch at the basket with 94% of attempts at rim (!) being unassisted–efficient self-creator with sky-high volume and constant attention from defenses.

Question marks

3-point shooting upside, small-ball utility

For his career, Jones is a 32% 3-point shooter on 322 total attempts (103 makes). He peaked at 35.4% on 2.5 attempts per game as a sophomore and shot 32.4% as a senior. A few indicators, which I value more highly than raw percentage, paint Jones in a more positive light; he’s a career 82.3% FT shooter and has attempted at least 2.5 threes per game in each of the last three seasons, showing a combination of touch and confidence, especially considering his dominance at the rim.

As a senior, Jones shot 61.4% at the rim on 197 attempts, with an aforementioned 93.4% of attempts being assisted. For reference, Kyrie Irving shot 66.7% at the rim on 39 attempts with 96.2% being unassisted–Jones laps (albeit an injured) Irving in volume and rivals him in finishing percentage and the rate at which those attempts are self-created.

The rim finishing is so efficient at high volume that teams have to respect his driving, and he’s a 34% shooter off the catch per Synergy. That’s a high enough combination to render him a threatening shooter, with some upside left to tap into if he cleans up his lower-half mechanics a bit–his jumper base is a bit narrow, slightly widening it could give him a more replicable jumper.

Offers no rim protection, limits him from playing up in small lineups at the next level like he did in college–skillset works best with a good screen-setting and rim-protecting big, thankfully most teams have at least one of those. Though Jones is still a versatile player on both ends, he legit played 1-through-5 at Weber State. I don’t envision him filling the role of a center, even in a small capacity in the NBA. His main shortcoming is vertical athleticism, having tallied only five dunks this past year and a minuscule eight total blocks in four college seasons. To counteract it, he collected 280 total defensive rebounds (fifth in nation) for a 31.1 DREB% (second in nation).

Overall outlook

Runs pick-and-roll, scores 1-on-1 off the dribble against bigger defenders, punishes switches in the post, generates steals with active hands and well-timed digs/rotations, excellent point of attack defender for his size. Likely to be underdrafted due to playing in a small conference, but he checks almost all of the role-playing wing boxes with potential to operate as a primary ball-handler when needed. Had the opportunity to enter the draft or transfer to a bigger school after last season and stuck with Weber State. Seems like a sign of strong character to me. Also got far more athletic–tested significantly better at combine this year than last and popped as an outlier athlete for his conference on film.

Same opinion on Jones as I had on Isaiah Crawford. Plug-and-play two-way wing that should have a draft floor in the late-first, but seems to be undervalued despite high level production and translatable flashes. Second-unit mismatch killer on the offensive end, versatile perimeter defender that generates steals and deflections at the point of attack. If the shooting remains the same–mid-thirties–or improves even slightly, he has so many ways to compromise a defense, and turns opponents over at a high rate while inhaling defensive rebounds.

The Hornets need as many quality wings they can get and if Jones is available at 42 it’d be a home run selection.