The Los Angeles Clippers had a lot of success at the 2025 NBA Summer League in getting what they wanted out of their top prospects. However, while the attention was focused on Cam Christie and Patrick Baldwin Jr., the Clippers also saw considerable potential in undrafted rookie Jahmyl Telfort.
Telfort, 24, is an older prospect who spent five years in college. After three years of dominating mid-major competition at Northeastern, he transferred up to the Big East with Butler in 2023-2024. While not the best scorer, Telfort led the Bulldogs with 16.0 points per game in his final year, earning All-Big East third-team honors in 2024-2025.
Unsurprisingly, Telfort's age and limited offensive game kept him off scouts' radars ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft. He received only a handful of pre-draft workout invitations, including one from his homeland team, the Toronto Raptors. Yet, it was ultimately the Clippers who gave him a shot on their 2025 NBA Summer League roster.
Telfort did not turn any heads at Summer League, averaging just 3.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 12.3 minutes per game. Opportunities were difficult to come by on a team that featured four players already under contract — Christie, Baldwin, Jordan Miller and Trentyn Flowers — and recent draft picks Yanic Konan Niederhauser and Kobe Sanders. Unlike most teams, the Clippers did not give their featured players many games off, further limiting Telfort's openings.
Despite his uninspiring box scores, Telfort still showed the Clippers a lot of potential in other areas. The Montreal native was one of Los Angeles' first post-draft signings, indicating the promise the team sees in him as a potential two-way player. With 16 players already under contract, Telfort is unlikely to receive a standard deal, but could still sneak his way onto the final roster.
Jahmyl Telfort can make Clippers' final roster
The Clippers' three two-way slots are already filled by Baldwin, Sanders, and Flowers. However, with Los Angeles already over the luxury tax threshold following the acquisitions of Brook Lopez and Bradley Beal, they could choose to fill their final roster spot by converting one of their two-way deals to a standard contract. Should that happen, a two-way contract opportunity would open up for an undrafted player like Jahmyl Telfort.
Telfort is not a flashy scorer, but that is not what the Clippers need at the bottom of their roster. With a team headlined by Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Chris Paul and Beal, there is not much room for any more ball-dominant guards. Instead, Telfort is the exact kind of hustle player Tyronn Lue can rely on for sporadic bench minutes, similar to the role he played in the NBA Summer League.
Telfort's 6-foot-7, 220-pound frame is already NBA-ready and well-suited for the role he could fill on any roster. While not the prototypical three-and-D wing, Telfort is a gritty on-ball defender with deceptively quick lateral movement and innate instincts in the paint. In many ways, he can emulate a lot of what makes Derrick Jones Jr. so valuable in the rotation.
Three-point shooting has been a criticism of Telfort's career, but he showed significant improvements in his final year at Butler. After hitting just 32 percent of his three-point attempts in 2023-2024, he connected on a respectable 36.1 percent of his triples in 2024-2025. While his free-throw numbers dramatically dropped off in that same period, Telfort has the stroke and confidence to at least gain respect for his jumpshot.
Telfort will never be a 15-point-per-game scorer, but his play style might fit exactly what Los Angeles seeks with their final roster spot. In that sense, his limited role on the Clippers' Summer League roster could pay dividends in the long run. He will have to earn every second of it in training camp, but Telfort could realistically find himself on an NBA roster by October.
