Former Ohio State basketball player Jamison Battle played five years of college basketball. The first two years were at George Washington, followed by two years with Minnesota. His final year was with the Buckeyes. He helped the Buckeyes make a final push for the NCAA Tournament once Chris Holtmann was fired.
Battle was one of the best players for Ohio State. He averaged 14.6 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting almost 37% from beyond the three-point line. When he was on the court, he was always a threat to score bunches of points because he could nail a bunch of threes in a row.
Following his lone season with the Ohio State Buckeyes, he declared for the NBA Draft. He was undrafted but signed a deal with the Toronto Raptors. After a strong Summer League and preseason, the Raptors gave him a two-way contract. Now, he's done even better.
Ex-Ohio State basketball player Jamison Battle gets fully guaranteed NBA deal
The Ohio State basketball product has now had his deal converted into a fully guaranteed three-year deal, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
The Toronto Raptors are converting two-way forward Jamison Battle to a three-year standard NBA deal, sources tell ESPN. The Ohio State product has averaged 5.4 points and 12.6 minutes for the Raptors this season. pic.twitter.com/1cODH5EXcU
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 7, 2025
Battle is in a good situation for him in Toronto. The Raptors are a bad team, so he's getting some playing time to help him develop. He's not going to be playing massive minutes for them early in his career, but he has shown that he can provide some solid bench minutes.
The Raptors are trying to get better, as evidenced by their trade for Brandon Ingram. Still, they have a lot of guys on the bench who are unproven. Battle has clearly provided solid enough minutes that the Raptors want to make him a part of their bench rotation for the next few years.
Battle's ability to make threes will keep him around the NBA for a while. So far in his rookie season, he is averaging 5.4 points per game on 45.8% shooting. He's shooting a whopping 41.7% from three, which means he needs to get more opportunities to shoot from beyond the arc.
This is a recruiting tool that Jake Diebler and his staff will surely be using.