Clippers Sign Desi Rodriguez to Training Camp Deal, per Report

Per Keith Smith of Real GM, the Clippers have signed wing Desi Rodriguez, of Seton Hall and the 2018 Clippers Summer League team, to a training camp deal. Now, training camp deals are usually nonguaranteed minimum contracts, or with a tiny $50,000 guarantee, and this is probably no different. However, this is a special kind of minimum deal: an Exhibit 10.

The Exhibit 10 contract is one that was established last year with the arrival of two-way deals. It is a minimum, non-guaranteed contract that has a couple special features. The first is that instead of a guarantee, these contracts have some kind of bonus for staying in the team’s organization, ranging from $5,000-50,000 (usually at the latter mark). If the team waives the player in training camp, but they stay with the G-League team for 60 days, they get their bonus. This is a nice incentive for G-League players, whose year-long salaries used to be lower than that bonus. The second feature is that the contract can be converted into a two-way deal at the discretion of the team.

The Clippers giving Rodriguez an Exhibit 10 means they like him at least a fair amount (and/or are doing his agent a favor). Basically, they want to keep him in the organization, even if it’s at Agua Caliente. Rodriguez was one of the better non-roster players on the Clippers’ Summer League team, averaging 7 points and 3.2 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per game over 6 contests. He was a teammate of Clippers’ two-way player Angel Delgado at Seton Hall, though the two didn’t really play much in SL to show off their chemistry.

I wrote more about Rodriguez here, but the bottom line is that he’s a sharp-shooter who has enough other components to his offensive game that he might be an NBA player. If he stands out in training camp, he could displace one of the Clippers’ current two-way players (Delgado and fellow big man Johnathan Motley), though I think it’s more likely he goes to Agua Caliente.

Look out for more training camp deals to come in the coming days. However, this signing puts the Clippers’ training camp roster at 18, and the maximum limit is 20. With the roster so full of guards, I’d guess other wings or stretch forwards will fill the last two spots.

Edit: I forgot about the Clippers’ two-way players. Adding them, their training camp roster is full, as it now has 20 players.