DETROIT, Mich. – The Motor City Cruise, NBA G League affiliate of the Detroit Pistons, announced today the club acquired center Tommy Rutherford off the available player pool.
Rutherford, 6-8, 240, is in his first NBA G League season. He’s appeared in two contests with the South Bay Lakers, averaging 9.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in 18.3 minutes. Rutherford was originally selected by the Santa Cruz Warriors in the first round (20th overall) of the 2024 NBA G League Draft. He participated with the team’s training camp roster and was waived prior to the club’s opening night before being acquired by the South Bay Lakers on Dec. 6.
The El Cajon, Cal., native has played a total of 112 games overseas with Neptunas Klaipeda (2023-24), ZZ Leiden (2022-23), Starwings Basket Regio Basel (2021-22) and Racing Luxembourg (2020-21). He most recently played for Neptunas Klaipeda in the Lithuanian Citadele League, where he averaged 8.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 18.1 minutes per game.
Prior to Neptunas Klaipeda, Rutherford appeared in 35 games with ZZ Leiden in the BNXT League and averaged 9.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 22.0 minutes per game. He led the club to their second Dutch Cup, was named the Dutch Finals MVP and helped ZZ Leiden to the BNXT League Championship earning BNXT Dutch Finals MVP. Rutherford spent his second professional season with Starwings Basket Regio Basel of the Swiss Basketball League, holding averages of 15.3 points, 11.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 34.5 minutes per game. Rutherford began his professional career with Racing Luxembourg of the Luxembourg Total League, appearing in a total of 16 games in where he held averages of 19.7 points, 16.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 33.7 minutes per game. Rutherford holds international career marks of 11.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 25.2 minutes per game.
Rutherford attended UC Irvine and played a total of four seasons (2016-20) with the Anteaters. The former All-Big West First Team member averaged 8.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 18.9 minutes per game. Additionally, he helped lead the Anteaters to two Big West Conference titles (2016-17, 2018-19) and a 31-6 overall record (15-1 in Big West matchups) during the 2018-19 season, which also clinched the university a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.
The Motor City Cruise is set to take on the College Park Skyhawks at the Gateway Center (College Park, Ga.) at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 12. The game can be streamed live at https://gleague.nba.com/.
-detroit.gleague.nba.com-
