I was able to touch base with Fred Jones tonight and he said he was also under the assumption the club was interested in bringing him back after he clears waivers, as reported earlier today.

“Yes, that is what I’m hearing and praying for too,” Jones wrote in an email.

A couple interesting names hit the waiver wire tonight. Shaun Livingston was told after the Heat’s loss to San Antonio that he had been waived, and Golden State waived point guard DeMarcus Nelson

Nelson was the Warriors’ starting point guard on opening night, but he quickly fell out of favor with coach Don Nelson. He appeared in just 13 games with Golden State, averaging 4.1 points.

Livingston, of course, was the Clippers No. 4 overall pick in 2004 who was attempting a comeback from a catastrophic knee injury. He had played in just four games this season.

I’m not sure if either of these moves changes the Clippers thinking. I will check in the morning.

Here’s the notebook I just filed:

For once, it wasn’t an injury that took down another player from the Clippers roster.

Monday afternoon, the club waived forward Paul Davis and recently-signed point guard Fred Jones, in an effort to create some roster flexibility before Wednesday, the date on which all players on the roster have their contracts guaranteed for the rest of the season.

After signing Jones last Sunday, the Clippers were at the maximum of 15 players, meaning all 15 contracts would’ve become guaranteed Wednesday. With a rapidly ballooning injury list –seven players are currently out with injuries — Clippers coach and general manager Mike Dunleavy said the club could not assume such risk.

“Had we not had all these injuries, we might’ve done nothing,” Dunleavy said. “But with all the guys out, we just figured this would put us in better position, buy us some time to figure out schedules and such.”

There is a chance one or both of the players waived Monday could be re-signed once they clear waivers on Wednesday afternoon. Of the two, a club source indicated Jones was most likely to return because of the team’s multitude of injuries in the back court.

Baron Davis (tailbone) did not travel with the team on Monday for its three-game road trip and could miss additional time after that. Rookie Mike Taylor (broken thumb) is out at least another six weeks. Jason Hart (elbow) is day-to-day, but doubtful for Tuesday’s game in Dallas.

Jones hurt his right foot in Sunday’s loss to Detroit and was expected to miss a week-10 days, though he said Monday after practice –but before he was waived — that he was going to try and play through the pain.

“Everybody sways on the caution side, but me right now, I feel like I’m one of those old school players that you know you put some ice on it and do what you need to do,” he said. “This is a job I love. Basketball is not just a job to me. I love this. Even when I was at home, I’d sit on the couch and watch games and study games. This is my first love.”

Losing Davis was a bit of a surprise. Davis was the team’s second-round draft choice (34th overall) in the 2006 NBA Draft. While the team remained high on him, Dunleavy said that the rash of injuries necessitated that it create some flexibility on the roster. And Davis, whose contract was not guaranteed until Wednesday, was waived.

“We like Paul, we liked his effort,” Dunleavy said. “We still have interest in him.”

The club could’ve waited until after Tuesday’s game in Dallas to make the cuts, but preferred, out of courtesy, not to bring both players on the trip and then cut them after Tuesday’s game. It also allowed the team to see which other players get waived before Wednesday’s deadline and decide the best course of action.

An hour after waiving Davis and Jones, the club traded a conditional draft pick in the 2015 draft for Denver center Cheikh Samb and cash considerations.

The Nuggets will pay the remaining $418,000 of Samb’s contract this season, meaning the Clippers essentially get a free look at a 7-foot-1 player with good shot-blocking ability and shooting touch.

Samb, 24, was originally drafted by the Lakers in 2006 (51st overall). He was traded to the Pistons, where he appeared in four games. In November, he was sent to the Nuggets as part of the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade.

Samb has played in six games with the Nuggets before being assigned to the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League on Dec. 10. Since then, he’s averaged 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 blocks in 10 games.

UPDATE: A couple of people have e-mailed about my listing of Wednesday as the deadline contracts become guaranteed. I probably should’ve been more precise. Contracts become guaranteed on Friday. But in order to clear waivers by Friday, a player must be waived by noon (Pacific) on Wednesday. Essentially then, decisions on who stays and who goes must be made by noon on Wednesday. Sorry if there was any confusion, I could’ve been more precise.

The Clippers decided to make their decisions Monday because it’s just not kosher to bring a guy on a road trip and waive him a day into it, then put him on a plane ride home. The Heat did the same thing later in the day when it waived Shaun Livingston before it left town on a seven-game road trip.

They also did it because it allows Fred Jones and Paul Davis to clear waivers by Wednesday afternoon, meaning one or both could be re-signed after that and theoretically back in uniform by the end of the trip.

Just from my own reckoning, that makes a bit more sense since Jones had a foot injury he was nursing. He said Monday he’d try to play through it in Tuesday’s game against Dallas, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to give him a few days to heal up, if indeed the club decides to re-sign him.

This should shed a bit of light on the situation. The Clippers are essentially getting Cheikh Samb for free. Denver is paying the remaining salary on his contract this year, which is a little less than $420,000. The conditional pick the Clippers are sending to Denver isn’t until 2015 and is 1-55 protected.

In effect, Samb is a free player for the Clippers right now, while Davis would’ve cost them a roster spot and his remaining salary.

The Clippers will put Samb to work immediately, but not at the expense of promising rookie DeAndre Jordan.

And, more importantly, this has nothing to do with Marcus Camby.

As coach and GM Mike Dunleavy said, while laughing, when we asked about the veracity of reports out of New York linking the Clippers to a strange three-way deal with Portland and the Knicks, “Oh yeah, I’m looking to trade 20 rebound (a night) guys every day.”

Another team source told me that the club has assured Camby not to worry about the recent round of rumors, and that the club values him highly.

After a little bit of checking, I think I can shed a little more light on the events of today.

Basically, today’s moves were made to create a bit of flexibility before cut-down day on Jan. 7.

The Clippers would’ve waited until tommorrow to do it, but it’s just not cool to drag guys out to Dallas, play them in a game when both have some minor dings, and then cut them in the morning.

Also, it gives the Clippers a chance to see who else around the NBA gets cut today and tommorrow and see the best direction to go. That said, it now sounds unlikely the team will sign a new point guard from the group I mentioned earlier (Eddie Gill, Damon Stoudemire, Walker Russell and Troy Hudson) this afternoon.

It is far more likely the team will wait a couple days to evaluate what’s out there.

Fred Jones has 48 hours to clear waivers, then can sign with any team in the league. The Clippers would like to have him back. But they needed to create a little flexibility before the seventh, since they have 15 guys on the roster.

I’m told it’s far more likely Jones will be back with the team than Davis, even though the Clippers like Davis and would like to have kept him around. He just got caught in a numbers game, and on a team where point guards have been dropping like flies.

Wow, it took an hour to get home from Clippers practice, which is apparently as long as it took for the Clippers to waive two guys, trade for another, and decide on who their next point guard might be.

The Clippers waived guard Fred Jones and forward Paul Davis today. The move on Jones was expected, since his contract was non-guaranteed and he injured his right foot in Sunday’s game and was expected to miss 8-10 days.

Jones said Monday that he was going to play through it, put some ice on it, whatever it takes to get back on the court. With contracts becoming guaranteed on January 7 though, that wasn’t a risk the Clippers could take.

Moral of the story: Don’t get hurt right before cut-down day.

As for Davis, I’m mildly surprised because I know the Clippers really like him and his game. He’s just the guy on the team with the non-guaranteed contract, on a team with a bunch of injuries.

Basically, the Clippers had nine healthy guys, meaning everyone has to be able to play a lot. If you’re even a little dinged up, that’s an issue. And if you’re dinged up, with a non-guaranteed contract, that’s a bad combination.

Expect the Clippers to fill those spots rapidly. They went out and traded a conditional second-round pick for Cheikh Samb, a 7-1 center on the Nuggets, and will also discuss signing another point guard.

If they decide to go in that direction, the point guard will likely be one of the guys who tried out for the Suns two weeks ago: Eddie Gill, Walker Russell, Damon Stoudemire or Troy Hudson.