Who Did the Agua Caliente Clippers Select in the G-League Expansion Draft?

Here are the players the Agua Caliente Clippers selected, taken from the G-League website.

Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario

Round 1: Andre Dawkins (Texas Legends)

Round 2: Bryce Cotton (Oklahoma City Blue)

Round 3: Corey Hawkins (Delaware 87ers)

Round 4: Will Cummings (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)

Round 5: J.J. O’Brien (Salt Lake City Stars)

Round 6: Jamil Wilson (South Bay Lakers)

Round 7: Keith Steffeck (Santa Cruz Warriors)

Round 8: Julian Jacobs (South Bay Lakers)

Round 9: Aaron Craft (Salt Lake City Stars)

Round 10: Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Westchester Knicks)

Round 11: Youssou Ndoye (Austin Spurs)

Here are some quick notes on the players:

· Andre Dawkins, the AC Clippers’ 1^st round pick, was undrafted out of Duke in the 2014 draft. He has mostly played in the D-League, but did make the Miami Heat roster in 2014, playing 5.5 minutes per game over four games. Dawkins is an absolute gunner from 3-point range—he has averaged 7.9 threes attempted per game in his D-League career, hitting them at a 42.2% clip. A marksman of that caliber is always valuable.

· Bryce Cotton is the only player drafted who has even close to significant NBA experience, playing 23 games over two seasons for the Jazz, Suns, and Grizzlies. He was last in the NBA in the 2015-2016 season. Cotton is a quick point guard who can also stroke the three, and is more of a scoring lead guard.

· The last player with any time in the NBA is Thanasis Antetokounmpo, who played in two games for the Knicks in the 2015-2016 season. The older brother of NBA superstar Giannis, Thanasis is also explosive athletically, but lacks the length and height that makes Giannis so fearsome.

· Jamil Wilson will probably be the most relevant player for Clippers’ fans to keep an eye on, as he will be serving on the AC Clippers under a two-way contract (meaning he will spend some of his time with the LA Clippers). He stood out in summer league last month, and was an excellent D-League player a couple years back. Look for him to be the “star” of the AC Clippers this season.

· Keith Steffeck and Aaron Craft both played under AC Clippers’ coach Casey Hill for the Santa Cruz Warriors. Several other players have been on the Warriors’ summer league team the past couple years, where Hill presumably participated. They should be good helpers for Hill in teaching the other players how to play in his offensive and defensive systems.

· Several of these players are signed for the 2017-2018 season, so probably won’t play for the AC Clippers, at least at the start of the season. Cotton re-signed with Perth in Australia, Will Cummings signed with the Turkish team Darussafaka, Craft will play for AS Monaco in France, and Thanasis has a two-year contract with Panathinaikos in Greece. The rest, to my knowledge, are unsigned, so are more likely to play for the Clippers this upcoming season.

We will keep you posted as further updates come in on who the Agua Caliente Clippers are able to sign. They will, of course, also be able to sign players not involved in the expansion draft, so there are still a lot of names on the table. I like the players the Clippers drafted, although they are light on NBA experience. Hopefully many of them play for, and standout on, the AC Clippers in the 2017-2018 season.