The Hawks have cut three players from their preseason roster, announcing in a press release that they’ve requested waivers on swingman DaQuan Jeffries, center Johnny Hamilton, and guard Ibi Watson.
Of the three, only Jeffries has NBA experience. The 24-year-old averaged 4.1 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 31 games (15.9 MPG) for the Kings and Rockets in 2020/21, and also spent the ’19/20 season in Sacramento. However, he was a non-guaranteed contract this fall, so Atlanta won’t take on any dead money as a result of releasing him.
Like Jeffries, Hamilton and Watson also weren’t owed guaranteed money. Watson is probably a good bet to join the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate, but it’s not clear if Hamilton will head to the NBAGL too — he has played in international leagues over the last two seasons.
After today’s roster moves, the Hawks’ roster is technically ready for the regular season, with 15 players on standard contracts (14 on guaranteed deals, plus Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot) and a pair on two-way pacts. However, Atlanta could still make more moves before Monday’s deadline for teams to set their regular season squads.
Did we ever learn how much of a partial guarantee that DaQuan Jeffries got with this deal? I remember being it reported that when he signed a couple weeks ago he was getting a partial guarantee.
I think that was some generous reporting — he got an Exhibit 10 contract, so maybe his agent considered his $50K E10 bonus a “partial guarantee.” I’m pretty sure the same is true of Trevelin Queen’s deal with the Lakers.
Ahh that makes alot more sense. Hard to believe they would have given them partial guarantees when they were long shots to make the regular season roster – especially in the case of Queen and the Lakers who would only be worsening their luxury tax bill. Thanks!