LAS VEGAS \u2014 Dillon Jones logged zero minutes in the NBA Finals but made his contributions to the title as a pseudo-adviser to coach Mike Brown.<\/p>\n
As a member of the 2025 championship Thunder, Jones offered experience in how to deal with the circumstances. <\/p>\n
Brown not only sought his young player\u2019s counsel, he implemented at least one suggestion by making the Knicks rewatch their Game 3 loss to the Spurs.<\/p>\n
The Thunder did something similar for motivation a year prior when Jones was a reserve guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith coach, honestly, it speaks a lot to just him more than me and whatever I had to say,\u201d Jones said Monday after he helped the summer league squad defeat the Pistons 86-75. \u201cThe fact that he would even approach me and have a conversation with me or even ask me to help in any way. \u2026 I just think it speaks to him more than me \u2014 his humility to hear everybody out in the building. And I\u2019m just glad I was able to help the team in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillon Jones dribbling the ball for the New York Knicks during an NBA Summer League game. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Jones said the idea to rewatch Game 3 came up in \u201corganic conversations\u201d with Brown.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing specific. Just conversations me and coach had,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd we were just talking about different things, and it came up in an organic conversation. It wasn\u2019t like I was just sitting home plotting on what to say or anything like that. \u2026 These things \u2014 you try different things all the time. You never know what works and what doesn\u2019t. I\u2019m glad I was able to help the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillon Jones and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a championship celebration. GC Images<\/p>\n
Jones is now fighting for a training camp invite.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Diawara (left ring finger injury) and Pac\u00f4me Dadiet (right foot soreness) both sat Monday, but the Knicks didn\u2019t miss them \u2014 riding rookie Jack Kayil to their first summer league win.<\/p>\n
Kayil, a second-round pick who played last season in Germany, dropped a team-high 19 points with three steals in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery talented kid. Super gifted,\u201d Jones said. \u201cOne thing I appreciate with him \u2014 obviously, he wasn\u2019t available early in summer league but when he came in the group, he knew what was going on, he understood what was going on. I think that speaks to his upbringing and coming up in Europe. Very talented kid. \u2026 He\u2019s not going there trying to overshadow. \u2026 He\u2019s got a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kayil arrived late to summer league because of a contract dispute with his German club. He said he doesn\u2019t want to be stashed overseas this season.<\/p>\n
Another free agent center is off the board.<\/p>\n
Or is he?<\/p>\n
Jonas Valanciunas appeared to push back on an overseas report that he finalized a deal to sign with Lithuanian squad BC Zalgiris, posting on social media with laughing emojis, \u201cYou wake up and see that everything has been decided for you, don\u2019t need to do anything myself. Thank you, reporters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lithuania\u2019s Jonas Valanciunas dribbles the basketball during a game against Italy. IPA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
Still, Valanciunas\u2019 signing with Zalgiris \u2014 while maybe not finalized \u2014 remains expected, according to BasketNews.<\/p>\n
Valanciunas, 34, is a free agent after being waived by the Nuggets. He\u2019s reportedly targeted by the Knicks, who are thin at center with only Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond on the roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Dillon Jones logged zero minutes in the NBA Finals but made his contributions to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,3357,6,3494,1136,191,3810,3806,66],"class_list":["post-786210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-knicks","tag-basketball","tag-knicks","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkknicks","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116917068340623836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}