According to the Orlando Sentinel’s Khobi Price, the Orlando Magic have officially signed former undrafted free agents Zavier Simpson and Drake Jefferies to Exhibit Ten Contracts. The signings of Simpson and Jefferies will fill in Orlando’s final two open roster spots for the 2022-2023 NBA Season. For context, Exhibit Ten Contracts are one-year, minimum salary deals that allow a player to be a part of training camp. Exhibit Ten Contracts are typically non-guaranteed, which allows teams to waive the player without taking a cap hit.
Although this is Simpson’s first official contract with Orlando, the former Michigan Wolverine is quite familiar with the Magic. In fact, Simpson played in five of Orlando’s six Summer League games in Las Vegas, Nevada. In those five games, Simpson posted a solid statline of 22.6 MPG, 8.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 6.2 APG, and 2.0 SPG while shooting 35.7% from the field and 28.6% from three-point range. Although Simpson received varying playing time on a per-game basis, Simpson was quickly building a rapport between himself and 2022 No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero, highlighting Simpson’s ability to adapt to new situations.
Before signing with Orlando, Simpson’s NBA career wasn’t ideal, to say the least. After a decent four-year tenure at Michigan (2016-2020) where Simpson averaged 7.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 4.6 APG in 146 collegiate games, Simpson went undrafted in the 2020 NBA Draft. Luckily, Simpson was able to sign an Exhibit Ten Contract with the Los Angeles Lakers on November 19th, 2020, but was quickly waived on December 13th, 2020.
After sitting in NBA Free Agency for over ten months, Simpson signed a contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 14th, 2021, but was immediately waived the next day. In spite of this, the Thunder decided to bring Simpson back to Oklahoma City, giving the 6’0″, 190-pound guard a ten-day contract on April Fourth, 2022. In his ten-day stint with the Thunder, Simpson averaged 43.5 MPG, 11.0 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 7.5 APG, and 1.3 SPG while shooting 36.5% from the field.
Similar to Simpson, Jefferies also went undrafted after an extended stint in college. Following a two-year stay at the University of Wyoming, where Jefferies averaged 9.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 0.8 APG while shooting 41.4% from the field and 39.4% from downtown, Jefferies wasn’t selected in the 2022 NBA Draft. As a result, Jefferies decided to join the Denver Nuggets’ Summer League team, but only played in one summer league game. In his lone summer league game, Jefferies scored six points while shooting 2-3 (66.7%) from three-point range.
After signing Simpson and Jefferies to Exhibit Ten Contracts, the Magic now have twenty total players under contract, with fifteen players on guaranteed standard contracts; one player on a fully non-guaranteed deal (Devin Cannady), and two players on two-way contracts (Admiral Schofield and Kevon Harris). All thirty NBA teams must trim their rosters to fifteen players on standard contracts (plus a pair of two-way players) before the 2022-2023 NBA regular season starts in October.
Can confirm Zavier Simpson has agreed to terms on an Exhibit 10 deal with the Orlando Magic.
The Michigan-to-Orlando pipeline remains strong.
Puts Magic at the maximum of 20 players who've signed/agreed to deals ahead of training camp. https://t.co/Nd5l4O56Je
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) July 29, 2022