Clippers Sign Chuck Hayes To One-Year Deal

7:37pm: The signing is official, according to the team’s website.

5:00pm: The deal is not fully guaranteed, reports Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (on Twitter).

4:39pm: The Clippers and Chuck Hayes have reached agreement on a one-year deal, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Hayes was set to sign with the Rockets, but that deal fell apart last week. It’ll have to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Clippers can give. The deal between Houston and Hayes was reportedly for the minimum with a partial guarantee, though the level of the guarantee on the latest deal for the Calvin Andrews client is unclear. Andrews has nonetheless confirmed the existence of the Clippers deal to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (Twitter link).

Several teams had expressed interest in Hayes for coaching or front office jobs, but still only 32, he was focused on continuing his career as a player, as Andrews said last week. Hayes has a chance to keep playing with the Clippers after putting up career lows across the board, including in minutes per game, with the Raptors this past season. Still, at only 6’6″, the undersized center has performed well on the boards during his 10-year career, pulling down 8.1 rebounds in 28.1 minutes per game for the Rockets in 2010/11.

The deal with Hayes would appear to complicate the team’s reported talks with Glen Davis and Ryan Hollins, and perhaps its apparent interest in Chris Singleton, too. The Clippers have been carrying 14 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, so that leaves room for only one more player on the regular season roster.

Whom should the Clippers carry as their 15th man? Hayes, Davis, Hollins, Singleton or somebody else? Leave a comment to chime in.

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