Sacramento Kings waive former second-round draft pick ahead of guarantee date deadline
The Kings parted ways with Justin James on Sunday, waiving the 24-year-old guard instead of guaranteeing his contract for the 2021-22 season.
A league source told The Sacramento Bee the Kings released James, a former second-round draft pick whose $1.78 million salary for next season would have become guaranteed if he wasn’t waived by Sunday. The Athletic’s Jason Jones first reported the news before the Kings played the Dallas Mavericks in the Las Vegas Summer League.
The Kings recently picked up a full guarantee on center Damian Jones and a partial guarantee on power forward Chimezie Metu, but James wasn’t as fortunate. James was squeezed out of a crowded backcourt that features De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, Terence Davis and Davion Mitchell.
The Kings selected James out of Wyoming with the 40th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft. The 6-foot-7, 190-pound shooting guard appeared in 72 games over two seasons in Sacramento, averaging 3.2 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 7.5 minutes per game.
James showed some improvement in his second season, raising his scoring average from 2.5 to 3.9 points while improving his field-goal percentage from .417 to .468 and his 3-point percentage from .310 to .368. He had his best game in the final week of the season, scoring a career-high 31 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range in a 116-110 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
