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Aaron Craft, former Ohio State great, managed to land gigs for both the 76ers and Warriors summer league teams, eventually earning a training camp offer invite from Golden State. Craft had a solid summer league appearance thanks to his hard work and defensive prowess, but his offensive inability was still pretty apparent. Nonetheless, he earned the praise of new head coach Steve Kerr and got invited to fall camp.
There was some talk around the Internet about Craft being able to make the Warriors opening day roster, something I more or less assumed was completely out of the realm of possibility. Being relatively well versed with Golden State (they are my NBA team after all), the Warriors have been searching (and failing) to find a competent backup at the point for Steph Curry. The only problem for Craft was they brought in Shaun Livingston to backup Curry in the offseason and still have Nemanja Nedovic as a third string option. While Nedovic hasn't done much as a developmental progress, partially thanks to injury issues, he's also still under a guaranteed contract so Golden State has to pay him anyway and it's hard to justify holding a fourth point guard. Even more so as the team has had ties in the past to Seth Curry, Steph's younger brother, who seemed like an even likelier option if need be.
So it shouldn't come to a surprise that Craft was one of the players waived by Golden State as the season approaches. And to no surprise, Golden State will still essentially retain Craft to see if they can develop him while keeping tabs on him just in case.
Aaron Craft's agent confirms he will play with Santa Cruz of NBA Developmental League. #buckbk
— Bob Baptist (@BBaptistHoops) October 25, 2014
Of course while the D-League is where most peopled expected Craft to end up, the timing of being waived is somewhat cruel in retrospect...
Draymond Green bought this costume for Aaron Craft pic.twitter.com/sRTEy9ls2F
— Diamond Leung (@diamond83) October 24, 2014
Yep, just days before being waived Craft was part of a tradition where the rookies were forced to dress in costumes and sing during Golden State's open practice. Not only did Craft have to dress as a bear while singing Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA," his costume was selected by former Michigan State star Draymond Green. And then he would go on to be waived before the end of the week.
Ouch.