The next player up in the Where Are They Now Series is Jawun Evans, Sindarius Thornwell’s draft mate all the way back in 2017.
Clippers Career
Jawun Evans was taken with the 39th pick in the 2017 Draft, marking the first draft selection of the post Lob City era. Evans was well liked by draft pundits as a pick, and Clippers fans had moderate expectations for Jawun due to a strong two-year college career. Evans played in 48 games his rookie season, averaging 16.2 minutes per contest for a competitive Clippers’ squad. However, despite flashing some fun playmaking and pesky point-of-attack defense, Evans’ offensive game, which was terrific in college, did not translate, with Jawun shooting just 35.2% from the field and 27.8% from three. It was overall a disappointing season, albeit with a few real highlights.
Unfortunately, like several of the Clippers’ young players from the 2016-2018 seasons, Jawun became a casualty of the Clippers’ influx of young talent with two lottery picks in the 2018 draft, and was waived on October 15, 2018 in training camp.
2019 Season
Jawun was picked up by the Phoenix Suns on a two-way deal just a couple weeks later, in early November, and remained with the Suns’ organization for most of the 2019 season. However, he played in a mere 7 games for the big league squad, averaging just over nine minutes per game and playing exclusively in garbage time. Instead, Jawun played mostly in the G-League, appearing in 32 games for the North Arizona Suns and averaging 15 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. Unfortunately, his turnovers were high (3.2) and the three-point shooting remained below average (33.8% on 2.3 attempts).
Evans was waived by the Suns on March 23, and was picked up by the Thunder on March 25. He played in just one game for the Thunder, logging a single minute with one stat (a missed three) before the season ended. Overall, not a banner year for Jawun, and this would be the last season he made appearances in NBA games.
2020 Season
Jawun was picked up by the Raptors 905, Toronto’s G-League team, and spent the season with them. He started in 16 of 33 games, but his scoring dropped all the way down to 7.6 per game, a nearly 50% reduction. Jawun’s turnovers also fell nearly in half, to 1.8, with a clear emphasis on running an offense and making plays for others rather than scoring. Sadly, what was probably Jawun’s steadiest year as a pro so far ended in early March, as he was waived following a season-ending injury.
2021 Season
It took Jawun nearly a full year to find a new professional home, as he signed with Promitheas Patras of the Greek Basket League in January of 2021. Evans played in just eight games for Patras and averaged a mere 15.2 minutes per game, with averages of 6.8 points and 2.0 assists not much to write home about. It was a brief sojourn internationally for Jawun, who then returned to North America at the end of the year.
2022 Season
Jawun signed with the Raptors 905 again, but was traded to the Canton Charge (Cleveland’s G-League team) before playing a game. He then appeared in 20 games for Canton, averaging 7.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists on his best shooting splits yet (43.2% from field and 43.3% from three). Still, at this point Jawun seemed locked into bench roles at the G-League level, or similar international arenas.
2023 Season
In September 2022, Jawun went back overseas, signing with Juventus Utena, a Lithuanian basketball team. Here, Jawun probably had his best overall professional campaign, averaging 14.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 5.5 assists while shooting 46.2% from the field, 40.5% from three, and 88.9% from the line. Oddly, Jawun played in just 14 games for Juventus before leaving, and didn’t sign anywhere else during the 2023 season after departing in January.
2024 Season
In July 2023, Jawun signed with Slask Wroclaw in Poland, but once again only appeared in a few games for the Polish side before signing with JDA Dijon Basket in the French LNB A. Jawun played in just a couple of games for Dijon as well, with very poor stats, logging just 10 total games across both leagues in the entire 2024 calendar year. Again, I’m not sure why he played in so few games, whether because of injuries, personality issues, or something else entirely.
2025 Season
In August of 2024, Jawun went back to Poland, this time signing with Legia Warsaw. Jawun played 13 games for Legia, but his stats were poor, scoring 7.9 points on 37.1% shooting from the field and 28.2% from three. Jawun left Legia, and in January of 2025 went back to the G-League, signing with the Maine Celtics. Jawun logged just four games with Maine, and his stats there were even worse than in Poland (albeit in a tiny sample size), shooting just 2-11 across those appearances and missing his only two threes. And that takes us to the present day.
Future
Jawun Evans has sadly had a bit of a downer career. After a somewhat fun if ultimately not very good rookie season in the NBA and then a competent (though again not awesome) G-League campaign the next year, he has really struggled to find his footing, with most of his stints with teams not lasting for more than a couple of months. Just 29 years old, Jawun could probably continue to play professionally for another few seasons, but it seems like at this point he might be even below the G-League level.
Ultimately, Jawun’s biggest issue has been scoring the basketball. It’s odd considering he was an effective and efficient scorer at good volume in a good conference in college at Oklahoma State, but his scoring has just not translated to the pros at all. More specifically, Jawun’s three-point shot has just never materialized, and it’s tough being a small guard that’s not a good three-point shooter. Hopefully Jawun can scratch out another couple of years professionally, even if that means going to some lesser-tier leagues.
