Almost wonder if this was more of a favor to him and his agent than a move to make us better. Woodard plays the same position as him, does a lot of similar things, and is an all around better prospect, and we're holding onto Barnes and added Davis as a quasi-wing and Harkless as another 3-4 so going to another (tanking) team is probably a better way for him to stay in the league longterm.
Woof, not a fan of this at all. DQJ was/is a fringe NBA guy, but def showed really valuable tools as a defensive wing with some shooting. New JJ was more redundant with TD and Wright in town especially.
It appears that James is not guaranteed next year either. DQJ had a team option; JJ has 100% unguaranteed money with a guarantee date that falls on 7/15/21 (which is actually before the draft since things are moved back this year). DQJ's team option presumably would have come up 2 days after the draft. Additionally, DQJ was making slightly less money next season.
It doesn't appear that there was any roster/financial incentive to cut DQJ over JJ. Which means we probably preferred to keep JJ.
I think that neither player factors into our long term plans and aren't likely to be on the roster next season. We have a weird attachment to players who can't get off the bench sometimes. That is the life of most 2nd round and undrafted players. 1-2 seasons of depth. Occasionally you strike gold.
I'm sure it does cut real cost somewhere along the line. By this summer I expect most of the Kings young players on this year to be gone. Hopefully Ramsey and Woodard survive. I just don't get signing Jones over keeping DaQuan. This tells me Luke wants to go back to playing big. We'll see if that crunches things this year or not.
One thing to consider when talking about the DQJ cut is the acquisition of Terence Davis, who is pretty much the same age as DQJ and occupying the backup 2/3 role that it seems the Kings had DQJ slotted for.
Lakers nation talked about Damian Jones back when they signed him to a 10-day contract. Seems to be a big body lop target for Fox/Ty. Limited offense otherwise...