{"id":790216,"date":"2026-07-19T02:33:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790216\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T02:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:33:37","slug":"pistons-notes-i-jones-okorie-lanier-b-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/790216\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Notes: I. Jones, Okorie, Lanier, B. Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pistons\u00a0two-way forward Isaac Jones<\/a> thought he was done with basketball when he graduated from high school in 2018, Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only story. With no college offers in sight, the Seattle native took a job on a loading dock and began to pursue a career outside of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt was really humbling. I\u2019ve gotta get up at 6 a.m., go work a manual, tough 9-to-5. It was cool, it helped me mature and grow. I always mess around and say I\u2019m the only NBA player who\u2019s forklift-certified.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 fortunes changed over the following year as he grew from 6\u20194\u2033 to 6\u20199\u2033 and received a call from a high school teammate who was transferring to Wenatchee Valley College. The coach was looking to add a player with size, which gave Jones a chance to get back on the court. That was followed by a year at Idaho and another at Washington State, where he earned first-team All-Pac 12 honors in 2024.<\/p>\n

Jones entered the NBA on a two-way deal with Sacramento in the summer of 2024, and the Pistons claimed him off waivers in November of 2025. He received first-team All-G League recognition last season and has been impressive during Summer League, reaching a level that seemed impossible eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Jones credits his first college coach, Jeremy Harden, with giving him confidence that he could play professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was back in JUCO when he told me I could be an NBA player,\u201d he said. \u201cI truly believed him and I got more confident. I thought I was going to go to the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Pistons:<\/p>\n

Detroit wrapped up its Summer League schedule on Friday, as Ebuka Okorie<\/a> became the first Pistons first-round pick since 2023 to play in all five games, Sankofa notes in a separate story<\/a>. The former Stanford point guard had a strong finish to his time in Las Vegas, posting 29 points, four rebounds and three assists in a loss to Miami.
\nChaz Lanier<\/a>, who appeared in 34 games as a rookie last season, also put together a strong week in Las Vegas, Sankofa adds. The 24-year-old shooting guard connected at 56.4% from three-point range over his last four games and appears to be one of the top outside threats on Detroit\u2019s roster.
\nBrice Williams<\/a>, who spent last season with Detroit\u2019s G League affiliate, is hoping his impressive Summer League performance will lead to an opportunity with the NBA team, per Alauna Marable of The Detroit News<\/a> (subscription required). The 6\u20197\u2033 guard displayed his scoring ability with 24 points against Phoenix on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m just playing confident, I ain\u2019t really thinking too much,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, having a short memory, shaking off that last game \u2014 just playing for the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pistons\u00a0two-way forward Isaac Jones thought he was done with basketball when he graduated from high school in 2018,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,3414,3523,296,188,3860,65460,3457,6,297],"class_list":["post-790216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-brice-williams","tag-chaz-lanier","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-ebuka-okorie","tag-isaac-jones","tag-nba","tag-pistons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116944306430706523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790216","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=790216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}