Rowan Kavner
TORONTO – Jeff Ayres made the most of his first stint in the NBA Development League. Now, he’s hoping to do the same with his first 10-day contract after signing Saturday with the Clippers.
The power forward spent five seasons in the NBA, playing in 220 career games between Portland, Indiana and San Antonio, where he won a championship, before going to the D-League this year. But 10-day contracts are a new concept for Ayres, the former 2009 No. 31 overall pick, who doesn’t want to let his chance back in the NBA slip away.
“It means a lot,” Ayres said. “Just to finally get that phone call, it’s a great feeling. It’s kind of a feeling of relief, too, that your hard work is getting noticed. It’s awesome to know that you’ve got another opportunity.”
Most of Ayres’ Saturday in Toronto, where he signed the contract and joined his new teammates, was spent taking a physical. He hadn’t yet met with head coach Doc Rivers, but that was the first thing on his mind after signing.
He’s thinking long term, and he wants to know what it’ll take to stick around.
“Whatever he tells me to do, just do it the best I can,” Ayres said. “After that, if I stay or not, that’s just how it plays out. But I can look back at it like I did whatever I could as hard as I could.”
History might be on the 6-10, 250-pound power forward’s side.
Last year, both Jordan Hamilton and Dahntay Jones earned second 10-day contracts with the Clippers after getting their first, then ended up signing the rest of the year. To do the same, Ayres, who averaged 16.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 23 games with the Idaho Stampede, plans on continuing what got him the call-up in the first place.
“One thing was just how hard I played,” Ayres said.
Ayres knew he wasn’t about to drop 40 points every game, but he could still make his presence felt in the D-League. It’s the little stuff, Ayres says, that really gets a player noticed.
“Attitude every day, how you deal with certain circumstances that are thrown at you,” Ayres said. “Are you in early foul trouble? Are you crying at the refs and being a crazy person, or are you dealing with it and rebounding in the second half and playing through it and not getting more fouls? Just little stuff teams look for in bench guys that are important.”
Often, Ayres said players who go from the NBA to the D-League view at it as a step back, or complain about how they shouldn’t be there.
That wasn’t Ayres’ style or preference.
“I really used it as an opportunity to get better and develop,” said Ayres, who went from last guy on an NBA bench to the leader of a team, attempting to establish a culture.
Given his experience, he knows how important that can be.
Ayres played for the Spurs during their title-winning 2013-14 season and was with them again in 2014-15. Prior to that, he played with Lance Stephenson for two seasons in Indiana for a team that went as far as the Eastern Conference Finals.
The California native, a standout at Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga and at Arizona State (where most people remember Jeff Ayres as Jeff Pendergraph) is now back with Stephenson and back with a hometown team, once again playing for a squad with aspirations far beyond 82 games.
He hopes he’ll be around long-term to see it all unfold.
“It’s amazing,” Ayres said. “Getting called up, period, is always great. You want it. But to be in this type of situation with a team that’s winning, one of the best teams in the West…it’s awesome.
“To feel that they want to bring me here – it’s not like I knocked on the door and said, ‘Please give me a chance’ – they did their research and felt like I was the guy they wanted on the team to help them do whatever, to help them win games however I can help them win. I take great pleasure in that, and that’s an honor.”
Here’s more of what Ayres had to say about joining the Clippers:
How difficult was it to wait to see when the next NBA opportunity would come around?
JA: “It’s tough, because it’s rare that somebody’s going to tell you, ‘Oh, hey, we’re looking at you.’ It’s kind of a surprise. You can’t think about it. You’ve just got to go to work every day and put out the best performance you can and play as hard as you can. You hope things are going on in the background, but you won’t actually know until you get that phone call.”
You were in Indiana with Lance, do you know anyone else on the team?
JA: “I feel like I know everybody on the team, playing against them, working out with them, union meetings and stuff… I feel like I’m going to walk in there and know pretty much everybody and everybody’s going to know me. It’s not going to be like, ‘Who’s this new guy who snuck into the back room watching film?”
What’d you learn from your trip to the D-League?
JA: “The biggest thing I learned was getting confidence in the game and getting a feel for the game and being able to play through mistakes. Instead of messing up one time and looking straight to the bench like, ‘Am I going to have to come out, what’s going on,’ you just kind of play without that type of pressure. It’s a different kind of pressure. You’ve got to go out and perform every day. Teams are looking at you, and you’ve got to contribute somehow…But that’s a different kind of pressure.”
