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Just as we deduced over the weekend, the Detroit Pistons will in fact fill their final roster spot with 24-year-old big man Josh Harrellson. Terms of the agreement were first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
Detroit has reached agreement with forward Josh Harrellson on a one-year, partially guaranteed deal, league source tells Y! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 21, 2013
To clarify: Harrellson's deal with Detroit is for two years, with team option on second season. This year will have a partial guarantee.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 21, 2013
So who's Harrellson? This is where I simply copy and paste from Sean Corp's initial post a couple of days ago ...
He was a former big man at the University of Kentucky who got big minutes after DeMarcus Cousins went pro and Enes Kanter was deemed ineligible. In his senior season, Harrellson shot 61 percent from the field and averaged 7.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.
The 24-year-old is 6-foot-10, 275 pounds and he possesses good rebounding instinct, a decent mid-range jump shot and the ability to defend, at least as far as jump-shooting big men go.
He parlayed that into being selected by the New Orleans hornets as the 45th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and traded to the New York Knicks. He played in 37 games in his rookie year and seemed like he belonged in the NBA. After being traded from the Knicks to the Rockets, then waived, he signed with the Miami Heat. But he played in only six games before getting waived again.
Most recently, Harrellson starred in the Chinese National Basketball League, where he was named player of the year. He averaged 22.3 points, 18.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 steals. His competition for player of the year were fellow former NBAers Hassan Whiteside and Craig Smith.
Two more quick notes before I turn things over for you to discuss. From Dan Feldman at PistonPowered:
Offensively, Harrellson is a stretch center. More than 40 percent of his shots have been 3-pointers, and he he’s made 32.8 percent of his attempts beyond the arc.
I'm not sure that trend will continue. Harrellson attempted just 29 three-pointers over 94 games at Kentucky, accounting for 8.9 percent of his field goal attempts. He's already jacked 64 attempts in 43 NBA games (40.5 percent of his attempts), but most of that occurred playing under three-point-happy Mike D'Antoni in New York.
Once D'Antoni was canned and Mike Woodson took over -- as well as during his six-game stint with the Miami Heat last year -- Harrellson attempted more than one three-point attempt in a game just twice. But hey, I like that the ability to hit a shot from outside the paint is in his skill-set.
Last but not least ... Harrellson's nickname is "jorts." Sorry for burying the lede. "Jorts" explains:
And with that, Detroit's roster is full, almost certainly putting an end to an extremely busy offseason that included (deep breath ...) a lengthy coaching search, draft day drama, a big ticket free agent, the return of two Going to Work era legends, a shocking sign and trade and the addition of two international MVP free agents.
Whether all of this activity translates into actual wins remains to be seen, but it's already been a fun ride.