Trail Blazers Set To Land Two Incredible Players On Workout As 2024 Draft Approaches With Incredible Offer From Raptors
On Tuesday, the Portland Trail Blazers held their fourth predraft workout of 2024 at their practice facility in Tualatin featuring six players.
Dillon Jones, a 6-5 wing out of Weber State, Jared McCain, a 6-3 guard out of Duke, Armel Traore, a 6-9 forward out of Ada Blois, Daniss Jenkins, a 6-2 guard out of St. John’s, Spencer Jones, a 6-7 wing out of Stanford, and Noah Penda, a 6-8 forward out of Ja Vichy-Clermont, were put through a series of drills and scrimmages as the team evaluates which players they’ll target with the seventh, 14th, 34th and 40th picks at the 2024 Draft.
For Dillon Jones, who ESPN lists as the 47th best player in the upcoming NBA Draft, Tuesday’s workout was an opportunity to highlight some of the skills that earned him Player of the Year honors in the Big Sky last season.
“My versatility, I can play any spot on the floor that I’m asked,” said Jones. “I think one thing I wanted to display was my passing ability, being able to make plays for other players, especially on a team like this if I’m gracious enough to play here. A lot of good scorers, Shaedon (Sharpe), Ant (Simons), Scoot (Henderson), whoever else, Jerami (Grant), so you’ve got to be able to be a good passer for those guys, so I just wanted to show that. Also show my ability to guard and shoot the ball. That might be one of the questions about me in this draft but I just wanted to show that I can shoot the ball and I think I did that really well today.”
Jones, who played four seasons at Weber State, averaged 20.8 points on 49 percent shooting from the field, 32 percent shooting from three and 86 percent shooting from the line, 9.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.0 steals in 37.0 minutes per game in his last year in Ogden, UT.
While Jones is trying to make his NBA dream come true after playing four years at a small school, Jared McCain came to Tuesday’s workout after playing just one season at Duke, one of the NCAA’s premiere programs. Jones, one of the highest-rated players by ESPN to work out for the Trail Blazers thus far, is also trying to show teams that he’s refined some of the skills he displayed in 36 games, all starts, last season for the Blue Devils.
“They want to see me play defense against smaller, quicker guards,” said McCain. “Rebounding has been one of my most translatable skills — that and shooting — so just continuing to show that I can do that at a high level. And then obviously just playing defense and making reads on the ball.”
The 6-3 guard who grew up in southern California averaged 14.3 points on 46 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent shooting from three while taking over half of his attempts from behind the arc.
