Getting ready for his debut season with the Mavs 🧪 is Klay Thompson.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that guard Lester Quiñones and the Philadelphia 76ers have reached a mutual agreement. For the past few years, Quiñones has been a part of the Golden State Warriors organization, switching between the NBA roster and their G-League club in Santa Cruz. However, Quiñones will be moving to a new organization in the hopes of winning a long-term job with the Warriors, as the roster (and two-way contract slots) are already full.
In 2022, Quiñones was signed by the Memphis-based Warriors as an undrafted free agent. Quiñones showed after three years of college that he was prepared to face G-League players. Quiñones had an outstanding rookie campaign, capped off by a 42-point showing. He was awarded the G League Most Improved Player Award and was given two 10-day contracts for the late season. He made four appearances and collected his first NBA stats.
After that season, Quiñones signed a two-way contract to rejoin the Warriors. The Brentwood, New York native has many impressive glimpses during bigger opportunities against NBA opponents. Throughout his 37 appearances with the Warriors, Quiñones averaged 10.6 minutes, 4.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.0 assist. As an outside threat, he made 36.4% of his three-point tries, demonstrating promise. He did, however, have difficulty making two-pointers within the arc, only hitting 45.3% of them.
The arrival of De’Anthony Melton and Buddy Hield, combined with the rise of Brandin Podziemski, gave the Warriors head management enough faith in their backcourt depth to give other spots on the roster priority despite the departures of Chris Paul and Klay Thompson this summer. They had the option to reinstate Quiñones on a two-way basis, but they chose to give Pat Spencer priority.