The Celtics have waived power forward Devin Williams, Jay King of Mass Live tweets.
The big man out of West Virginia signed a non-guaranteed training camp deal with the club in late September. With Williams out of the picture, the C’s drop down to 19 total players, 14 of whom remain on guaranteed deals.
Williams split time with the Hornets’ G League affiliate and Melbourne United of the Australian Basketball League last season.
The Celtics have finalized their training camp roster by signing Jonathan Holmes and Devin Williams to fill their last two roster spots, the team announced today in a press release. Boston is now carrying the maximum 20 players.
Holmes, 24, went undrafted out of Texas in 2015 and saw his rookie season derailed by a torn labrum. Last fall, Holmes joined the Cavs for camp but didn’t make the team’s regular season roster and spent most of the season playing in the G League for the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s affiliate. The power forward’s rights were traded to the Maine Red Claws this week, signaling that the C’s expect him to play for their G League squad.
As for Williams, the 23-year-old power forward played his final game for West Virginia in 2016, forgoing his senior year to enter the draft. He went undrafted last June and spent last season with Melbourne United in Australia and with the Greensboro Swarm in the G League.
The two signings signal that the Celtics won’t carry Daniel Dixon on their training camp roster at this time. Multiple outlets reported in August that Dixon had reached an agreement with Boston, but that deal either fell through or will be finalized at a later date.
The Lakers were able to keep their 2016 first-rounder when they landed the No.2 overall pick in Tuesday’s lottery. The team still owes Philadelphia and Orlando a first round pick each and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders breaks down the possible pick exchanges in a series of tweets. Los Angeles sends its 2017 first-rounder to Philly if it falls outside the top-3. If the Sixers get the 2017 pick, then the Magic receive the Lakers’ unprotected 2019 selection. If it doesn’t convey in 2017, then the Lakers send their 2018 unprotected pick to Philly and they wouldn’t owe Orlando a first-rounder at all. Instead, the Magic would receive a 2017 second-rounder and a 2018 second-rounder. Los Angeles is in this predicament because of its 2012 trade for Dwight Howard and its 2012 trade for Steve Nash.
Here are some notes on the upcoming draft:
Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson, who declared for the draft last month, has signed with Priority Sports for his representation, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Projections are divided for the 21-year-old who ranks as the 11th-best prospect according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress but comes in just 25th in the listings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles.
Plenty of other news about the draft has emerged with the June 23rd event barely more than two months away. Here’s the latest.
West Virginia junior power forward Devin Williams will enter this year’s NBA draft, the school announced. The statement doesn’t make it entirely clear whether Williams intends to hire an agent right away, but sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com that he plans to do so (Twitter link). That means he won’t be able to withdraw from the draft before the May 25th deadline and return to college ball. It’s a risky decision for the 6’9″ 21-year-old, since he’s just the 94th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him outside the top 100, simply listing him as the 35th-best junior.
Williams does his best work on the boards, having pulled down an impressive 9.5 in just 25.4 minutes per game this season, the top per-game rate in the Big 12. He averaged 13.3 points a night but isn’t a floor-stretcher at all, having missed the only 3-point attempt he took during his college career. He does have a solid midrange game, according to Ford, and he led the Big 12 in defensive rating this year, according to Sports Reference.
The stoutly built Williams helped the Mountaineers to a No. 6 ranking in the Associated Press poll at one point this year, but West Virginia’s season ended with a first-round upset loss to No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin in the NCAA Tournament, despite 17 rebounds from Williams, one off his season high. Williams was coming off a career-high 31 points against Kansas in the Big 12 championship game. He steadily improved throughout his college career after finishing high school at No. 55 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.