7 best undrafted talents to play for Cleveland Cavaliers

Best undrafted Cavs player No. 4: Damon Jones

Damon Jones is unique on this list for his boomerang nature; he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers during his first career, and then was a part of the coaching staff in Cleveland in his second. That latter reality speaks to how his time in Cleveland wasn’t as frustrating as many fans likely remember.

To go back to the beginning, Damon Jones played college basketball at the University of Houston. He entered the NBA Draft in 1997 and was not selected, and ended up playing for a number of non-NBA basketball leagues, including the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). He finally caught on in the NBA in 1999 with the New Jersey Nets.

Jones was a true journeyman, playing for nine teams in his first seven seasons in the league. That seventh season was spent in Miami and was the best of his career, with Jones hitting 43.2 percent of his 3-pointers and holding down a starting spot for most of the season. That earned him a hefty contract in free agency from the Cavaliers, which we recently ranked as one of the 15 worst free agent contracts in franchise history.

Jones was overpaid, sure, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a good player for the Cavs. He shot well as a shooting specialist off the bench in a very small offensive role. He went to the NBA Finals alongside LeBron James in 2007, and in a career where he never spent more than one season with a team he played three in Cleveland. Then he returned years later as a coach on Ty Lue’s coaching staff and won a title with Cleveland in 2016.