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Antonius Cleveland has signed with the Golden State Warriors, according to ESPN’s Ian Begley.
Antonius Cleveland has agreed to a deal with the Golden State Warriors, per league sources.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) July 27, 2017
The 6’6’’ wing just finished a four-year career at Southeast Missouri State. He was named to the All-OVC First Team last season, as he led the Redhawks in scoring and shot 38.4 percent from distance. More recently, the undrafted rookie played for the Portland Trail Blazers in Summer League, where he averaged 14.7 minutes and 5.8 points per game over six contests.
DraftExpress anticipated his prospect potential back in December.
I did a full breakdown of Antonius Cleveland's game in December. Late-blooming wing with a very unique path. https://t.co/uYkFA5RCvi pic.twitter.com/KyJYcJTxX5
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) July 27, 2017
Cleveland was signed by former SEMO coach Dickey Nutt in 2013, and wasn’t assigned a ranking by any of the major recruiting websites at the time. According to 247Sports, he also received interest from Appalachian State, FIU, Georgia State and USF, among others.
He immediately gained a spot in Nutt’s rotation as a freshman, and was a fixture for the Redhawks in all four of his seasons. His latter two seasons came under Rick Ray, over which he averaged 15.9 points per game. His big senior campaign helped SEMO improve its win total by 10 games from the year before.
Details on the nature of his agreement with the NBA champions are scarce. The Warriors undoubtedly see him as a project with “three-and-D” potential, but it’s unclear whether they’ve given him a two-way deal, or any sort of guarantee.
Should he earn a spot on the roster, he’d be just the second Redhawk to play in the NBA after Dick Eichorst in the early 1960’s.