In this year’s “The Basketball Tournament,” D.J. Kennedy led the Overseas Elite to a championship (and a $2 million prize).
Kennedy scored 18 points to go along with eight rebounds in the team’s 77-72 championship victory over Team Colorado. His efforts did not go unrewarded, as Kennedy is now reportedly signing with the Denver Nuggets on a partially guaranteed deal, per Yahoo’s Shams Charania:
Sources: D.J. Kennedy, star on $2M champion in The Basketball Tournament, has agreed to a partially guaranteed three-year deal with Denver.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 16, 2016
This won’t quite be Kennedy’s first NBA experience. The 6’6″ shooting guard played two games for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2011-12 season, scoring a total of 12 points, and shooting 2-4 from three-point range. Kennedy is a veteran of the NBA’s Summer League; he has played with the Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Houston Rockets’ Summer League teams.
Kennedy, who averaged 11.7 points per game in four years at St. John’s University, will look to earn a spot in the Nuggets’ rotation this season. That won’t be an easy task however, as the Nuggets already have young backcourt talent in Emmanuel Mudiay, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Will Barton, and Malik Beasley. They also have a couple of veteran players (Jameer Nelson and Mike Miller) in the backcourt. The Nuggets are extremely deep for a young team, so Kennedy’s odds of getting playing time don’t look great. You never know, though. Maybe he’ll impress the Nuggets enough to earn significant minutes.
