The Cavaliers and former lottery pick Killian Hayes have agreed to a contract, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype tweets.
Details were not disclosed but it’s almost certainly a training camp deal with no certainty of making the opening night roster. However, the Cavaliers need to fill out their roster — adding Hayes would give them 16 players, five short of the training camp maximum.
In a related move, Cleveland acquired Hayes’ G League rights in a trade with the Nets’ affiliate. The Long Island Nets acquired a first and a second round pick in the 2026 NBA G League Draft from the Cleveland Charge in exchange for the returning player rights to Hayes.
Hayes reportedly drew interest from teams in Europe this offseason, but was focused on earning another NBA opportunity.
ASVEL Basket in France made Hayes a strong offer and Real Madrid in Spain and Anadolu Efes in Turkey also registered some interest in the free agent point guard.
However, Hayes is hoping to stick in the NBA after appearing in 216 regular season games across the past five seasons. The seventh overall pick in the 2020 draft by the Pistons, he struggled to adjust to the NBA game in Detroit, where he made just 38.2% of his field goal attempts and 27.7% of his 3-point attempts across four seasons from 2020-24.
Still, Hayes is just 24 years old and played well in a very small sample with Brooklyn last season, averaging 9.0 points, 5.2 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 27.0 minutes per game and making 38.1% of his three-point tries in six appearances (five starts). The 6’5″ Frenchman spent most of 2024/25 playing for the Long Island Nets in the G League, where he put up 17.3 PPG, 7.4 APG, and 5.4 RPG on .463/.371/.689 shooting in 33 outings (32.9 MPG).
Hayes is no longer eligible for a two-way contract, so if he hopes to make an NBA roster this fall, he’d have to do it by earning a standard 15-man spot.