{"id":84751,"date":"2024-07-05T11:49:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T15:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84751"},"modified":"2024-07-05T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T15:49:18","slug":"los-angeles-clippers-re-signing-controversial-big-man-kai-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/05\/los-angeles-clippers-re-signing-controversial-big-man-kai-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers Re-Signing Controversial Big Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/02\/nba-rumors-controversial-forward-linked-to-clippers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> have re-signed big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/joneska01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kai Jones<\/a> to a non-guaranteed contract.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sources: Free agent C\/F Kai Jones has agreed to a non-guaranteed deal to return to the Los Angeles Clippers. Clippers incorporated the talented 6-foot-11 big man at end of last season and give the 2021 No. 19 overall pick a chance to compete for roster spot next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1809203634648813694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>News of Jones re-signing with the Clippers comes less than a week after the team declined his team option.<\/p>\n<p>Jones joined the Clippers in April towards the end of the regular season. However, the former first-round pick did not appear in a game for the team.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/08\/philadelphia-76ers-working-out-controversial-big-man-kai-jones\/\" target=\"_self\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> previously signed Jones to a 10-day contract in March, but he did not make an appearance for the team either.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Jones is dealing with an ankle injury that is expected to keep him out of the Summer League.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Some news since we&#8217;re about to enter summer league season<\/p>\n<p>Kai Jones has an ankle injury that will keep him out of summer league, per source. Another setback after Jones had a hamstring injury while with 76ers\/Blue Coats in March<\/p>\n<p>Clippers still have plans to retain Jones though.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Law Murray \ud83d\udedd (@LawMurrayTheNU) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LawMurrayTheNU\/status\/1808670643766112734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Los Angeles Clippers Re-Signing Controversial Big Man<\/h2>\n<h3>Kai Jones&#8217; Controversial Charlotte Hornets Exit<\/h3>\n<p>The Hornets acquired Jones during the 2021 NBA Draft after the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/knicks-free-agency-options-after-losing-key-big-man\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Knicks<\/a> selected him with the No. 19 pick. The Bahamas native played two seasons for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/25\/2024-nba-offseason-preview-whats-next-for-the-hornets\/\" target=\"_self\">Hornets<\/a>, appearing in 67 total games. In that time, Jones averaged 2.7 points and 2 rebounds per game. Despite his lackluster stat line, Jones showed a lot of potential. However, the Hornets waived Jones in October 2023 just days after he publicly requested a trade from the team. In Jones&#8217; final days with the team, he posted <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/09\/27\/hornets-kai-jones-has-murky-status-after-bizarre-posts\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">numerous controversial social media posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During an interview on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6gxuNQbhcSU\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Vizion Podcast<\/em><\/a>, Jones explained why he requested a trade.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c(Hornets general manager) Mitch (Kupchak) tells me I\u2019m not allowed to do training camp,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWhen he tells me that, that was when I was like, \u2018Yo, I\u2019m off of this team.\u2019 How can I play here? They\u2019re not letting me do training camp. They\u2019re not allowing me to try out for my position, right? So I\u2019m upset, I\u2019m like, \u2018Yo, I just wanna leave now. I\u2019m gonna leave.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Last Word on Kai Jones<\/h3>\n<p>Jones is only 23 years old and has a lot of tools to be excited about. He is a very athletic and versatile big man. Additionally, standing at 6&#8217;11&#8221;, Jones has the size to play either power forward or center. Although his NBA playing time has been limited up to this point, Jones appears to be a solid low-risk, high-reward player for the Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the offseason, the Clippers lost free agent center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/plumlma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason Plumlee<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/30\/mason-plumlee-signs-with-suns\/\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix Suns<\/a>. Furthermore, big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/theisda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Theis<\/a> may play <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/25\/former-boston-celtics-big-man-resuming-career-overseas-daniel-theis\/\" target=\"_self\">overseas next season<\/a>. It will be interesting to see if Jones and the recently-acquired <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bambamo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mo Bamba<\/a> can step up and take on a larger role for the Clippers during the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania, the Los Angeles Clippers have re-signed big man Kai Jones to a non-guaranteed contract. Sources: Free agent C\/F Kai Jones has agreed to a non-guaranteed deal to return to the Los Angeles Clippers. Clippers incorporated the talented 6-foot-11 big man at end of last season and give the 2021 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":84183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,27,62,3],"tags":[1494,4278,421,1573],"class_list":["post-84751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","tag-daniel-theis","tag-kai-jones","tag-mason-plumlee","tag-mo-bamba"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}