3:20pm: Porter has officially been waived and Lofton has been signed, the Jazz announced in a press release.
12:41pm: The Jazz intend to waive veteran forward Otto Porter Jr., sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Porter will not eligible to participate in the playoffs with the new team, since he was waived after March 1, which is the deadline for players to be released while maintaining postseason eligibility.
A report earlier today said Utah plans to sign young big men Darius Bazley and Kenneth Lofton Jr. to three-year contracts that are mostly non-guaranteed. Since the Jazz have 14 players on standard contracts and a 15th — Taevion Kinsey — on a 10-day deal, they needed to cut someone to create roster space. Porter will be that roster casualty, while Kinsey’s 10-day contract is also likely to be cut short.
Porter, 30, was traded from Toronto to Utah at the deadline in the deal that saw Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji moved to the Raptors. He never actually played in a game for the Jazz, who have been prioritizing young players for the second consecutive season after being in the hunt for the play-in tournament prior to the deadline.
A former No. 3 overall pick, Porter developed into a quality three-and-D player with the Wizards early in his career, which has unfortunately been derailed by injuries over the past six seasons. After helping the Warriors win a title as a key reserve in 2021/22, he signed a two-year, $12.3MM contract with Toronto, but only appeared in 23 combined games for the Raptors the past two seasons.
Assuming Porter clears waivers, which is a virtual certainty, the Jazz will carry a $6.3MM dead-money cap hit.
Too bad for him he didnt get waived before the deadline.
But guess they didnt want to do it if he didnt give up salary. Also sends a sign for next year that players shouldnt expect just to be waived but will need to give up salary to sign with a new team.
He wasn’t going to get signed. No reason for him to give up money.
Just see he is retiring.
You never know he still found a team if waived before the deadline, postponing retirement, but seems extremely unlikely now.
Jazz would have cut him sooner but Porter couldn’t find a team willing to take him on soon enough
Let’s go GSW!!!
Just saw he retired, that’s unfortunate. He had a good career though
Both are worth taking a look at.