Dillon Jones is getting another shot to stick in the NBA, and this one comes with a familiar kind of irony: the two-time champion has landed with the Philadelphia 76ers on an Exhibit 10 deal, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Jones will be in camp with a Sixers team that still has two roster openings to sort through, one standard and one two-way. If he can carve out a path, the two-way spot would seem like the cleanest route. For now, he’s at least bought more time.
That’s been the story of Jones’ last two years. He spent the past two playoff runs at the far end of the bench, first with the Oklahoma City Thunder and then with the New York Knicks, and both teams ended up lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Oklahoma City won the 2025 NBA Finals with a Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers. New York followed with a gentleman’s sweep of the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals.
Somewhere along the way, Jones picked up a reputation as a good luck charm.
His path to Philadelphia has been anything but straightforward. The Thunder dealt him to the Washington Wizards in June 2025, and he didn’t even reach the start of the 2025-26 season there before being waived in Oct.
- Jones then tore through the G League, and that run earned him a two-way contract with the Knicks in Jan.
Once in New York, he got a front-row look at a 16-3 postseason march. He couldn’t play in the 2026 NBA playoffs because of his two-way status, but he was still around the team and often visible on the TV broadcast, cheering on teammates during the run.
Jones also spent time with Team USA this summer as he tries to turn that championship résumé into something more permanent. Philadelphia is entering the 2026-27 season with title ambitions of its own after a wild offseason that included trading for Jaylen Brown and signing LeBron James.
The Thunder originally drafted Jones with the No. 26 pick in 2024. His lone season in Oklahoma City was brief and forgettable, but his career has already produced a strange little footnote: back-to-back rings with two different teams, a rare piece of NBA history.
In Other News...
Thunder Title Hopes Still Rest On One Risky 2026-27 Bet
The Thunders path to another title run is still being shaped by how much growth they can squeeze out of the next wave around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. With roster changes already thinning out some familiar wing and backcourt depth, Oklahoma City is leaning more heavily on Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell to help absorb the minutes and responsibilities left behind while the organization keeps betting that its young core keeps trending up. Chet Holmgren remains central to the bigger picture, but the margin for error in the Western Conference is small enough that the supporting cast has to be more than just promising.
Jalen Williams is the biggest swing in the whole conversation, because his availability and continued rise could determine whether the Thunder look like a good team with championship aspirations or a real favorite. He was limited to 35 games last season while dealing with wrist and hamstring issues, and the Thunder need a cleaner, steadier version of him if the 2026-27 season is going to end with more than just a deep playoff run. A lot of their title hopes rest on that kind of risky bet, which is exactly what makes the next two seasons so intriguing in Oklahoma City. [Read more 🡒]
Jalen Williams Gives Thunder A Late Game Edge They Needed
The Thunder already showed they could handle the heat in the 2025-26 season, going 24-10 in games within five points over the final five minutes and leaning on Shai Gilgeous-Alexanders award-winning composure when possessions tightened up. But theres another layer to the late-game picture now, and it starts with Jalen Williams, whose role in those moments was relatively modest last season even as Oklahoma City continued to build one of the leagues steadier closing profiles.
Williams is expected to matter a lot more next season, and that matters for a Thunder team that wants to keep the burden from sitting so heavily on Gilgeous-Alexander when the margins shrink. More ball-handling, more shot creation and more options in the clutch could give Oklahoma City a different kind of closing lineup, one that makes its postseason hopes look a little less dependent on a single solution when the game gets tense. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Rival May Be About To Lose Another Big Name
The Mavericks have gone from a team built to chase a title to one trying to figure out what comes next after losing Luka Doncic to the Lakers. For a Thunder club that still has to navigate the Western Conference through Dallas, the shift matters because it changes the kind of opponent Oklahoma City is likely to see down the road. Kyrie Irving is still the headlining name there, a nine-time All-Star and NBA champion, but the roster around him no longer looks like one designed to stay in the contender tier.
ESPNs Tim MacMahon has already pointed to Irving as a player contenders could come calling for, which only adds to the sense that Dallas may not be done reshaping the picture. And with ESPN projecting the Mavericks to land near the bottom of the Western Conference this season, the pressure on the franchise feels like it could keep building rather than easing. For the Thunder, the bigger question is whether a division rival that once looked built to stay relevant is now headed for another major turn. [Read more 🡒]