Waived by the Boston Celtics on Thursday, JD Davison returned to the NBA on Saturday by signing a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets.
A two-way contract allows an NBA team to shuttle a player between the big team and the NBA Gatorade League affiliate without exposing him to waivers. Davison spent almost all his three seasons with the Celtics on a two-way contract and became the Maine Celtics’ career leader in points and assists while appearing in 36 regular-season games with Boston.
Houston’s G League affiliate is the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in Edinburg, Texas. Each NBA team can have three players on two-way contracts.
Davison won the Kia NBA G League Most Valuable Player for the 2024-25 season, and Boston converted his two-way contract to a standard deal on April 13 to put him on its playoff roster, then picked up its team option in June to keep the former Alabama guard for the 2025-26 season.
But on Thursday, Boston announced it had waived Davison. Waiving Davison put Boston’s committed spending for the 2025-26 season below the second apron of the luxury tax and left the Celtics with an open roster spot.
Davison averaged 25.6 points, 7.7 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 45 games for Maine last season.
Davison also played 16 regular-season games with Boston during the 2024-25 season. He had 33 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists, five steals and one blocked shot in 93 minutes of court time. Davison also played 13 minutes in four playoff games.
Davison earned Alabama’s Mr. Basketball Award for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons while leading the Calhoun School in Letohatchee to the AHSAA Class 2A championship in each campaign. Davison averaged 33.4 points, 12.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists as a junior and 32.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists as a senior at Calhoun.
Davison averaged 8.5 points, 4.8 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game in his only season at Alabama.
Boston selected Davison at No. 53 in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.
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