Teams can officially negotiate contracts with NBA free agents, and the Los Angeles Clippers have already struck a deal. While no contracts can become official until July 6, multiple reports are already confirming the Clippers have a pending agreement with one of their targets.
According to NBA insider Shams Charania, the Clippers have agreed to sign former Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. It’s a two-year contract for Porter, which includes a player option for the second season.
Notably, Porter decided to play basketball in Greece last season after being unable to find anyone in the NBA interested in signing him to a contract. Porter averaged 22 points, 9.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 2.8 steals across six domestic league matches, which included the first triple-double in Greek Basket League playoff history.
Yet, there’s a reason NBA teams didn’t previously show interest in Porter Jr, who was charged with domestic violence back in Sept. 2023 after allegedly assaulting his then-girlfriend and WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick.
Less than a month later, Houston traded Porter to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who immediately waived him from his contract. This came just a year after the Rockets signed Porter to a four-year, $82.5 million contract extension. Roughly three months after Porter was arrested, he accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault and second-degree harassment.
Now, as Charania noted, Porter had multiple NBA suitors targeting a contract with Porter, who’s still just 24 years old. There’s no word on the financial terms of the contract he’s receiving with Los Angeles, but Porter brings a career scoring average of 15.3 PPG, and his most recent season saw him average 19.2 PPG.
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