Deja Vu: Jared Cunningham is a Cav Once More…
2015-08-17
The already long NBA journey of Jared Cunningham (24), that began with the Cavs drafting him at number 24 overall in the 2012 draft, came full circle yesterday when he reportedly agreed to a deal with the team (likely not guaranteed), after committing to camp.
Free agent Jared Cunningham has agreed to a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers, recently committing to camp, league sources tell RealGM.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 16, 2015
Cunningham, a 6’4 SG, last played for the Utah Jazz Summer League team, averaging 10 points in 15 mpg over the course of eight games (three in Utah and five in Las Vegas).
Here he is running over Marcus Smart…
He finished last season with the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, where he played in 29 games, averaging 18.7 points on 42% shooting, with three rebounds and three assists.
Here he is checking Rashad James…
Cunningham played college basketball for the Oregon State Beavers, where he averaged 17.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.53 steals per game in his final (Junior) season. He led the Pac-12 in steals per game for the second consecutive season, and finished ninth nationally. Jared was also named to the All-Pac-12 First Team and the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team, and was named to the Pac-12 All-Tournament team for the second consecutive season.
After being selected by the Cavs, his draft rights were then traded with Jae Crowder (yes that Jae Crowder) and Bernard James to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Tyler Zeller and Kelenna Azubuike (what happened to that guy?) on draft night. He signed his rookie contract with the Mavs, and bounced several times between stints with Dallas and their D-League team, the Texas Legends.
Jared going “Legend” in Texas…
On draft night in 2013, Cunningham was traded to the Atlanta Hawks, and he later joined the Hawks for the 2013 NBA Summer League. During that season, he had multiple assignments with the Bakersfield Jam before being waived by the Hawks in February 2014.
Jared’s feelings about the Jam? The caption says it all…
In March of that year, Cunningham signed a 10-day contract with the Sacramento Kings. He eventually signed with the Kings for the rest of the season. Despite playing for their 2014 Summer League team, he did not receive a new contract offer.
Jared showing VC how to be a pirate…
Then, in September of 2014, Cunningham signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Here he is in his best game of his career (albeit in the pre-season), scoring 23 points against the Warriors…
On January 7, 2015, he was traded, along with the draft rights to Cenk Akyol and cash considerations, to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for the draft rights to Sergei Lishouk (I’m assuming both of these names and identities were elaborate and fictional creations from the mind of Sam Hinkie as part of his pyramid scheme player shell game). He was waived by the 76ers later that day.
“Yes, I promise you… these are actual names of real players… as far as you know.”
He was then acquired by the Delaware 87ers of the D-League, and traded in March to the Stampede in exchange for Joel Wright.
Overall, Cunningham has averaged 1.9 points and 4.9 minutes in 40 NBA appearances.
A fun fact about Cunningham is that his middle name is Armon, which begs the equally fun nickname… Armon Cunninghammer (yeah… okay, groan if you want… I deserve it).
He also has a small dog with a cool hat on his Twitter page…
And he can still probably throw down sick dunks like this one…
Welcome to the Cavs, Jared! (and also, most likely, the Charge!)
For what it’s worth: Cunningham played for Craig Robinson at Oregon State. Robinson played under Pete Carril at Princeton (where he overlapped for two years with a guy named David Blatt). So Cunningham should be fundamentally solid and reasonably smart on court.
I think that’s worth a lot! Great intel, PH!
GO TO 2012 NBA DRAFT AND CHECK OUT CUNNINGHAM’S PROFILE —-LENGTH / ATHLETICISM / COMPETES /BALLHAWK ( TIED GARY PAYTONS RECORD FOR STEALS —–HAS TO WORK ON STRENGTH/ OUTSIDE SHOT ( WHICH MAYBE THE LAST 3 YRS HAS ALLOWED HIM TO DO / IMPROVE ON ) —JUST SAYING ??
He’s old and not good.
COLS IF YOU TRY OUT FOR THIS ” THE ENTIRE CTB NATION ” WILL BE THERE TO CHEER YOU ON !!!
Cols… if he does make the team, then you have to try out for this…
Not gonna make the team
cavs have just signed QUINN COOK —–also what is the latest / greatest on ” SASHA KAAN “—-just wondering
Nomad with the savvy scoop! I like it!
Cook’s numbers with OKC: 10.2 ppg (4th on team), 4.2 apg (2nd on team). Cook shot 44 percent from the field, 33 percent from deep, and like the champ that he is, he did not miss a single free-throw in the Orlando Summer League competition.
s this signing a message to JR —-maybe the kid is a ” late bloomer ” and playing on the right team / players his potential may surface —who knows ?
I was wondering the same thing….might this be a contingency plan in case JR doesn’t come back? If so, was this the best they could do?
I don’t think so… JR has a spot on this roster if he wants it. He just has to come to terms with the fact that it’s going to be for less than he would have made if he just simply opted in…
There’s something about this kid that kinda reminds me of one of my favorite Cavs ever… Bobby Phills. Same size, same sort of game. Bobby was able to come in and make a difference at the tail end of the early 90s Cavs after spending his first couple of years in the CBA. Probably a long shot that Jared has that kind of impact, but I’ll root for him to stick at the end of the bench…
That’s spot on. The history of the league is littered with late boomers. Cunningham led the Pac 12 in steal his junior year and has good size for a combo guard.
I am with EG: Bobby Phills is one of my favorite players, and a good example of why you want to give the guys from the D League a chance! No doubt Cols thought he sucked!
You spent more minutes on this than Cunningham will see in the regular season in a Cavs uniform.
That’s probably true… but it was fun to write…
Great background EG, hope he can make an impact.
Super Duper excitement! Championship ready now!