
The Sacramento Kings announced Wednesday that they've signed Damian Jones to a 10-day contract. The move was first reported on Saturday, but it was unknown at that time when the Kings would finalize the move.
Signing Jones today means he will be available for the team's next five games, against the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards, and Phoenix Suns. The Jazz, Pelicans, and Suns games in particular stand out as opponents whose size has been a challenge for the Kings in the past.
Jones is an athletic big man who stands at 6'11" and 245 lbs. Jones last played on a pair of 10-day contracts for the Los Angeles Lakers. With the Lakers Jones played in 8 games, including 6 starts, and averaged 5.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks in 14 minutes per game.
We'll have to wait and see how much Luke Walton decides to use Jones, or if he ends up using in him at all, but I'd venture a guess that Jones will be more than just an extra body for practices.
Three way trade: Jeffries to Houston, McLemore to LA, Jones to Sac.
They kindly let Jeffries go so he could sign with a contender.
Jones– so?
Meanwhile, it appears Houston is looking to solidify their tank by signing Jeffries.
In his Youtube highlights, he looks like a guy with the type of defensive game that could really help the Kings, in short minutes. Of course, his best highlight, I saw, was of the Kings making him look like Draymond-moving his feet at the top of the key to deny Buddy a shot, then dropping to the post to track the ball out of Holmes’ hands, back Bagley down under the basket and stuff his shot nearly to the floor-shot clock violation. It’s Filthy!
Quotes from unnamed SoCal site:
“If this actually is goodbye, we’ll always have the week where he was the most efficient scorer in L#@!rs history. It was a fun time and definitely gave this slog of a regular season a much-needed spark.”
and…
“Jones did everything the [team] asked him to do while he was with the team… He gave the [team] a jolt of energy while the team was missing multiple starters. This release isn’t his fault…”
Then they go on talking about how they can still get him back if they don’t score in the buy-out market. When they scored Drummond, that made Jones redundant, and the Kings needed a rim-protector more than Jones’ last team, even before Drummond. Maybe he’ll have a bigger impact than DqJ? Seems likely.
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