Before the season, John Schuhmann of NBA.com surveyed rookies about their fellow first-year players.
The Pistons’ Kim English finished fifth for best defender and fourth for best shooter. He even received votes for “Which rookie will have the best career?” one of two second rounders to receive a nod for that most-important question.
English is, by all accounts, a pretty great guy. After overcoming stuttering problems earlier in his life, he’s become an outspoken leader with the oratory skills that allow his infectious personality to shine. There were certainly on-court reasons to believe he’d succeed in the NBA, but I think a lot of his support was based on people wanting English to thrive rather than rationally believing he would.
Unfortunately, English didn’t deliver on that hope during his rookie year. He shot 28 percent on 3-pointers and defended pretty poorly. Not only wasn’t he a 3-and-D player, he was neither a 3-nor-D player.
With the Pistons up to 14 players under contract plus their three 2013 draft picks (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchel and Peyton Siva), there was no longer room to hold out hope for English, whose completely unguaranteed $788,872 contract becomes fully guaranteed tomorrow.
The Pistons waived English, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.*
English will go on waivers, where any team in the NBA can claim his minimum-salary contract. If English clears waivers, he won’t sign anywhere immediately, because a team that wanted him would have just submitted a waiver claim.
If unclaimed, he’ll likely get a shot in a training camp somewhere, and I suspect he hasn’t lost any fans, but gained only motivation.
*English will not immediately become an unrestricted free agent.
