He may not have made a major impact on the court in Boston, but JD Davison probably has had the best career of any Maine Celtic in G League history. He was a part of the 2024 title team, and after finally running out of two-way eligibility with the Celtics, Davison was let go last summer.
But he was signed on a two-way deal by the Rockets last summer, and his contract was converted to a standard deal in April with a non-guaranteed second season. And unfortunately, on Wednesday, the Rockets waived Davison after picking up his team option in June, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Davison has largely been a dominant force in the G-League, winning the MVP Award in 2025, but he hasn’t quite been able to break through at the NBA level. He appeared in just 36 games for the Boston Celtics over three years, totaling only 198 minutes.
JD Davison waived by Rockets
There was some hope that he might be able to carve out a bigger role in Houston, especially after their starting point guard, Fred VanVleet, was lost for the year, but it never really came to fruition. He played in a career-high 28 games and more than doubled his career minutes total, seeing the floor for 218 minutes.
But still, the Rockets have chosen to part ways with the 23-year-old point guard. And for Davison, who turns 24 in October, time may be running out on the NBA dream. Hopefully, he can get another shot, but at 6’1”, it’s incredibly hard to stick in the league without a truly elite set of skills.
JD is clearly very close to that, as he is able to dominate the G-League, but to reach the highest level, where the margins are razor thin, everything has to be perfect, and things just haven’t quite been that.
It would be great to see a young, rebuilding team with nothing to lose give him a real shot at the NBA level and see if his G-League performance can translate to the league at all, but now four years removed from college, it seems less likely by the day. He’s still a useful player and seems like a good guy to have around, and with players staying in college longer than ever with the NIL money floating around, it’s not like it’s crazy to roster a 24-year-old prospect.
Davison has no more two-way eligibility
But sadly, he is now out of two-way eligibility with four years of service time in the league, so it’s a standard contract or bust for JD, and that feels like a long shot. More realistically, Davison may try his luck overseas and could become a highly successful player with a long career in another league.
And then, there’s the dream scenario and storybook ending where Davison decides to sign an affiliate deal with the Maine Celtics. JD is already the all-time leading scorer in Maine, and it would be awesome to see him come home and keep rewriting the record books up in Portland.
That would be very cool to see, but for now, we still have to wait for Davison to clear waivers and see what other offers are available to him. It’s probably not going to shift the dynamics of the NBA hierarchy, but it’s certainly something for Celtics fans to keep an eye on.
