Xavier Moon, who recently completed three 10-day hardship contracts with the Clippers, is determined to make it back to the NBA, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Moon’s last game was in New York City against the Knicks, and he said it was a surreal experience.
“Watching these games on TV, Madison Square Garden, everybody doing what they do and getting a chance to take the court?” Moon said. “Man, surreal.”
The 27-year-old NBA rookie has plenty of international experience, having made stops in France, England, Israel and Canada. Upon hearing that some G League teams were interested in his services late last summer, Moon decided to buy out his contract with an Italian club and give things a shot closer to home, Greif writes.
“I was like, I think I’ll hold off from going overseas this year,” Moon said. “And I think that was probably one of the better decisions that I made.”
Moon appeared in six games with the Clippers, averaging 5.5 PPG, 1.7 APG, and 1.5 RPG in 13.8 MPG. In 17 games with Agua Caliente, the team’s G League affiliate, he has averaged 13.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 6.6 APG, and 1.4 SPG on .489/.386/.864 shooting.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Kings are in a tailspin, losing 12 of their last 14 games to fall to 18-32 on the season, 13th in the West, and Harrison Barnes is understandably frustrated with the team’s performance, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “It’s a range of emotions: frustration, anger, embarrassment, disappointment. You can go down the list,” Barnes said after posting 28 points and nine rebounds in the loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. “No one prepares and wants to lose, wants to go through losing the way we’ve been going about it. There’s a lot of frustration, but it’s on us to get out of this.”
- Anthony Davis said X-rays on his right wrist came back negative after injuring it on a dunk over Joel Embiid in the Lakers‘ loss to Philadelphia on Thursday, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. Davis will miss Friday’s game against Charlotte with wrist soreness, McMenamin relays in a separate tweet.
- LeBron James is also inactive Friday night for the Lakers and is considered day-to-day with left knee soreness, as Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group details. In a follow-up tweet, Goon notes that James’ knee is swollen on top of being sore, so the team is being cautious with the 37-year-old star.
- Within the same article from Goon, Stanley Johnson says he’s thrilled he was able to turn his 10-day deals with the Lakers into a standard contract that will cover the remainder of the season, with a team option for next year. “I couldn’t have dreamed of something like this in wildest my dreams,” Johnson said. “Obviously, I wanted it. … Seeing a 10-day guy with a fit like this, it’s happened before. And it will happen again. But it doesn’t happen a lot.”
Before the season started I said the Lakers were a square peg in a round hole and because of that would face constant injuries all season….. guess I’m Nostradamus… or the lakers front office sucks.. either or.
Yes because only you had this scorching hot take. Congrats, here’s your crown.
Lakers just need to trade Horton-Tucker. Some people think that he is next big thing.
Lakers can set the asking price like one young player and two picks.
Except he’s not really worth what most people perceive his value to be. THT is a talented young player, but he definitely has his own fair share of holes in his game.
LA could definitely net a useful player for THT, but he won’t be the centerpiece of some huge deal that alot of fans expect. Sadly, they’ll likely be pretty disappointed if and when he’s traded, with their sky high expectations..
Last TD Lakers FO passed on a Lowry trade juste because they didn’t include THT a 2nd round pick, then let Caruso go and gave him a mid level contract … Say no more !!!
Laker fans are always gullible about their “talen-t”. Raptors never wanted THT, they were holding out for that 2027 1st rder. Good luck getting anything with the talen-t.
That is because they have nothing worth trading. Reeves is probably a better player than THT right now with some up swing. He looks like a 2nd team scorer off the bench. THT looks like what every team has a bench player that will never be more than a bench player.
That boy AD so soft, one game back and he’s got a sore wrist and is out again
Right?
Kings? In a tailspin? Noooo….