Former Pitt basketball player Jamel Artis has only one NBA year under his belt but he’s already making the rounds through the league quite a bit. He’ll now join his third team this summer as he will play for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ summer league team.
After going undrafted, Artis signed a deal with the New York Knicks but was cut in training camp. He then went on to join the Orlando Magic and saw his first playing time in the NBA, getting into 15 games last season. At times, he even looked pretty good. But that wasn’t enough to keep his job with the team and it was recently reported that the team didn’t give him a qualifying offer, making him a free agent.
Last year, he averaged 5.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, and 1.2 apg while shooting 39% from the field.
Artis, for now, anyway, remains a fringe NBA guy. The good news for Artis is that he has the ability to play in the league as we saw a little last year. The bad news is that there are a lot of other guys with a similar level of talent.
Artis will not only have to impress this summer to stick with the Cavs but then have a successful training camp to stick. Otherwise, he could again be looking for a new team. But it’s at least good to see him getting opportunities.
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