The Thunder are sending Dillon Jones and a future second-round pick to the Wizards, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Oklahoma City confirmed the deal in a press release, announcing that it received shooting guard Colby Jones in return. Jones’ $2.22MM contract for next season is non-guaranteed, and he was waived immediately.
The second-rounder headed to Washington in the deal is for 2029 and originally belonged to Houston, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Dillon Jones, a 23-year-old swingman, was originally selected by Washington with the 26th pick last year, but he was traded to New York and then to Oklahoma City on draft night. He appeared in 54 games as a rookie for OKC, averaging 2.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 10.2 minutes per night.
Jones will be part of a youth movement for the Wizards, who had two first-round picks in this year’s draft, along with three last year. Jones is the second member of the 2024 draft class that Washington has added in a trade, joining AJ Johnson, who was acquired from Milwaukee in February.
The deal unloads salary and opens a roster spot for the Thunder, who had been set to have 15 players return from this year’s championship team. The move creates an opening for rookie center Thomas Sorber, who was selected with the 15th pick on Wednesday.
Dillon Jones will make a guaranteed $2.75MM in 2025/26, with team options worth $2.88MM and $5.2MM, respectively, for the following two seasons. The Wizards will have to make a decision on that ’26/27 option (worth $2.88MM) by October 31 of this year.
Colby Jones, 23, appeared in 15 games with Washington after being acquired in a three-team deal at the trade deadline. He averaged 8.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists with the Wizards.
Because Colby’s salary was fully non-guaranteed and Dillon is earning more than the minimum, the Wizards had to use a traded player exception to complete the deal. They used the one generated in February’s trade of Patrick Baldwin, the smallest of the three TPEs they controlled.
The Thunder will create a new TPE worth the difference between the two players’ 2024/25 salaries, approximately $502K. However, that exception is almost certainly too small to ever be used.
Needed to get rid of one player…Dillon was not very great last year as a rookie and didn’t have any chance at minutes really
From the top floor to the basement real quick.
Dillon! You sooooon of a..
The CIA got you pushing too many pencils?
My guess is he goes into the Baldwin TPE? Otherwise if my math is right, WAS would need to increase Jones’ partial guarantee to match salaries.
Yeah, exactly. I’ll add this to the story.
I think Jones might be a good get for the Wizards. Has some talent could use the playing time
What did he do? Non-basketball related? OKC gave the NYK 5 SRPs for him (after getting 1 SRP from WSH trading down from 24 to 26). Now, OKC, after 1 year, pays another SRP to dump his tiny 2.7 mm salary? Nobody is that bad at basketball.
He has $10M guaranteed over 3 years and Colby Jones had 1.2M guaranteed and will be released. Simple cost cutting move. Nothing about his ability as we’ve seen them keep guys who can’t play for 3-4 years before moving on. The odds of him being worth $5M in 2027 maybe was low but for less than $3M for the next two seasons, could have been worth seeing what happened.
He has a RSC, so the last 2 years are not guaranteed. The disparity of 1.5 mm cap hit worth a SRP?
Thought he would stay, but I still think Dieng will be moved too.
Dieng, Kenrich and Joe are possibilities to be moved. Wouldn’t mind consolidating those 3 and picks into Cam Johnson.
I think Kenrich is safe due to the way they speak about him being the vet. He was there when the changes were being made. Joe I think goes because he lost playoff minutes. He is there only good/consistent 3pt shooter but defense was a liability.
Washington now have 5 guys from what was perceived as the weakest draft class in memory – Sarr, Carrington, Kyshawn, AJ Johnson and this guy.
We’ll see if it’s true that the class was weak or these players manage to carve out a place for themselves in the league.
Indiana did the same with the 2020 draft. Haliburton, Neesmith and Toppin but not to that level. They found a superstar and two good role players on a championship caliber team
Wizards pursuing a “ no net new Joneses” strategy…