The Clippers have reached a two-year agreement with guard Kevin Porter Jr., Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). The contract will include a player option in the second year.
Porter’s new deal will be for the veteran’s minimum, The Athletic’s Law Murray tweets, and will be fully guaranteed, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link). It will include a 15% trade kicker, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports adds (Twitter link).
Porter has had a short, but checkered, history in the NBA. He started his career with Cleveland, but was inactive at the beginning of the 2020/21 season due to an off-season weapons charge, which was later dropped. He was traded from Cleveland to Houston in 2021 on the heels of a locker room incident.
In 2023, following an arrest on a domestic assault charge, Porter was traded by the Rockets to Oklahoma City shortly before the start of the regular season. The Thunder waived him the day after the deal was completed and he didn’t play in the league this past season.
Porter reached a plea agreement of a third-degree reckless assault misdemeanor in January. He is in the process of completing a court-ordered program, and once completed his plea will move to not guilty with no criminal record (Twitter links).
Porter was originally charged with felony counts of assault and strangulation after an altercation with his former girlfriend in New York.
At the beginning of April, Porter signed with PAOK in Greece. In six domestic league matches, he averaged 22.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.8 steals in 39 minutes per contest.
Porter drew multiple suitors, according to Charania, before choosing the Clippers. With the team seeking to trade Russell Westbrook, Porter has an opportunity to jump right into the rotation.
In his last season with the Rockets, he averaged 19.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game in 59 starts. For his career, Porter has averaged 15.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per contest.
He has a good value
Stats
19
5
6
Going to have to wait to see their final roster before figuring this one. They have Harden, Powell, Hyland, Westbrook off the top of my head, as guys that need the ball in their hands/scoring guards. He theoretically fits around their guard/wing defenders, but not next to those other guys
He’s a POS, but if he can produce like his last season in Houston they got a bargain.
They did suspend Ja for waving a gun. But the NBA’s attitude toward domestic violence is lacking. I don’t believe Porter Jr was ever suspended without pay, and Miles Bridges was never disciplined for the second (known) altercation with his wife. Trevor Bauer is trying to figure it all out.
My thoughts exactly. How is mlb so hard on domestic violence when nba doesn’t care at all, and nfl is in between cause they get a suspension but (almost) all come back after the suspension is over?
Wow huge L for the Clippers
He will probably get in trouble again especially in that city.
Oh no. *gets the popcorn*
As a Rockets fan, it was hit and miss for KPJ he clearly had talent and a very high ceiling but he just never seemed like a winning player on the court, his stats were the only thing that mattered. Great stats but never winning play. And his stats were while playing as a #1 option as a 3rd or even a solid role, he should be a solid player.
As for his off court issues, let’s be real, issue before the draft pushing him outa the lotto to #30. Issues in Cleveland and law making him miss his debut. Issues causing them to trade him for nothing to Houston. Issues with him and coaches leaving an NBA game halfway through. Issues with him and fellow players in practice. Issues during the off season getting him blackballed and released last summer. This is a very risky move by Clippers. But he is very good and still young. We’ll see. I hope he does well and grows up a bit.
Atleast now he can learn to steal money from Harden ….., better off signing Bridges
Bad karma for the Clippers now. Sign this loser like you did with Primo and you messed up again. Watch the Clippers fall apart now
Clippers should offer Bridges a contract too
This is a great pickup for the clips.
So, in order to attempt reproducing some PG offense, they opt for this guy. Steve B signed off on this?
Maybe the owner can date him since harden turned him down. I never saw Steve so upset when harden said.I don’t go with that way. JP was the bottom this year
Another chance? Let’s see if he learns this time.