Cavs Notes: Allen, Mobley, Enaruna, Fanan, Playoffs
Jarrett Allen‘s right knee injury remains a concern for the Cavaliers as the regular season winds down. Allen missed 10 consecutive games in March due to what multiple people within the organization have referred to as “severe” tendonitis, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). Allen has been back in the starting lineup for two of the team’s past three contests, but that doesn’t mean he’s fully healthy.
“Definitely still sore out there. Definitely not 100 percent,” the Cavs’ center told Fedor after Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers. “I’m not able to put a lot of pressure on my knee sometimes. Jumping and landing on the knee still hurts. Not as much as before, when I first got hurt, but still managing it and definitely still struggling with it.”
While head coach Kenny Atkinson expressed hope that Allen will be back to full strength for the playoffs, the 27-year-old admitted he’s not sure whether or not that will be the case, as Fedor relays.
“I don’t know,” Allen said. “It’s just the truthful answer to that. Hopefully it gets better. I’ve gone through tendonitis all of my career. That’s just a big man’s thing you have to deal with. I think it is going to get better. We have been doing so much to make it get better — and it has — but I can’t answer that question.”
We have more on the Cavs:
- After not making this year’s All-Star Game, Evan Mobley was challenged by Atkinson to come out of the break with a “chip on your shoulder,” Fedor writes in another story for Cleveland.com (subscription required). Mobley has responded to that challenge admirably. Prior to a quiet game on Tuesday vs. the Lakers, he had put up 20.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 62.4% from the floor in his first 17 post-All-Star outings. “It was a simple conversation about using it as a chip on my shoulder and knowing the value that I bring to this team,” Mobley said of his February discussion with Atkinson. “Since then, just been working and trying to get better with the team as new guys came. Just focus on my game and trying to expand it as much as possible.”
- Rookie forward Tristan Enaruna, who is on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers and is in his second season in the G League, has been named the NBAGL’s Most Improved Player (Twitter link). After averaging 11.0 points per game on .466/.294/.588 shooting in 46 appearances for the Maine Celtics last season, Enaruna has increased those numbers to 20.3 PPG with a .548/.378/.750 shooting line in 38 outings for the Cleveland Charge in 2025/26. Bucks two-way player Cormac Ryan was the runner-up for the award, with another Charge player – guard Darius Brown II – placing third in voting.
- Enaruna wasn’t the only member of Charge to be recognized today by the G League. The team’s general manager, Liron Fanan, was named G League Basketball Executive of the Year for 2025/26, becoming the first woman to win the award (Twitter link). Fanan helped compile a Charge roster that went 23-13 during the regular season and had six players – including Enaruna and Brown – called up to the NBA.
- The Cavaliers can officially clinch a playoff spot on Wednesday, but it will require the Sixers to lose to the 17-58 Wizards, per the NBA (Twitter link). Washington has won just one of its last 20 games.
Bucks’ Nance Among Two-Way Players Nearing Game Limit
Bucks forward Pete Nance had one of his best games of the season in Tuesday’s loss to Cleveland, scoring 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds, and blocking two shots. Although Milwaukee lost the game by a score of 123-116, Nance was a +7 during his 30 minutes of action.
As Keith Smith of Spotrac observes (via Twitter), it was the 29th consecutive game – and the 47th overall – in which Nance was active. That’s important because the 26-year-old is on a two-way contract, which comes with a limit of 50 active games.
The Bucks still have 14 games left on their regular season schedule, but if they want Nance to be active for more than three of those contests, they’d have to promote him to their standard 15-man roster, which is currently full.
Most promotions from a two-way contract to a standard deal in a given league year occur between the trade deadline and March 4. That way, teams don’t prematurely fill a roster spot they might need for a deadline deal and have the ability to back-fill a newly opened two-way slot on or before March 4, the deadline to sign players to two-way contracts. Promoting a two-way player to the 15-man roster after that deadline means that a club would have to leave one of its two-way slots open for the rest of the season.
Promotions can still happen between March 5 and the end of the regular season, but it’s a less pressing priority for teams who don’t have 15-man roster spots available and/or won’t need their two-way standouts for the postseason. The Bucks, whose playoff chances are on life support, probably fall into both of those categories, so it will be interesting to see whether they feel compelled to make a move with Nance as he nears his 50-game limit.
Here are the other players are on two-way contracts around the NBA who have fewer than 10 games of eligibility remaining (their remaining games are noted in parentheses):
- Moussa Cisse, Mavericks (4)
JD Davison, Rockets (4)
Tyrese Martin, Sixers (4) - Caleb Love, Trail Blazers (5)
David Roddy, Nuggets (5) - Tristan Enaruna, Cavaliers (6)
Blake Hinson, Jazz (6)
Rayan Rupert, Grizzlies (6)
Payton Sandfort, Thunder (6)
Dalen Terry, Sixers (6) - Norchad Omier, Clippers (7)
Nate Williams, Warriors (7) - Patrick Baldwin Jr., Kings (8)
Jamal Cain, Magic (8)
Julian Reese, Wizards (8) - Trevor Keels, Heat (9)
KJ Simpson, Nuggets (9)
Jalen Slawson, Pacers (9)
Ethan Thompson, Pacers (9)
Chris Youngblood, Trail Blazers (9)
Some of these players were just signed a couple weeks ago and didn’t have that many games of two-way eligibility to begin with, so the fact that they’re nearing their limit isn’t a big deal for their respective teams.
Sandfort, for instance, joined the Thunder on March 2, giving him 12 total games of regular season eligibility. He has been active for six, but has a DNP-CD in all of them. It’s safe to assume Oklahoma City won’t be looking to find a way to promote him to its standard roster.
Others on this list were regular contributors earlier in the season but have been deactivated since they got close to their respective limits. Cisse, for example, was at 42 active games at the trade deadline, but has been in the Mavericks’ lineup for just four of 18 contests since then. Davison and Love are among the others who have found themselves exiled to the inactive list on a permanent basis in recent weeks. Their teams have gotten by without them lately and don’t appear to be prioritizing promotions.
That doesn’t mean none of these players will be converted to standard contracts by April 12 though. The Jazz, Warriors, and Magic are among the teams that have open roster spots, so Hinson, Williams, and Cain, each of whom has been seeing a decent amount of playing time recently, should be considered candidates to fill those openings.
Eastern Notes: Raptors, MPJ, Nuggets, J. Smith, Enaruna
While the Raptors have primarily been linked to centers on the trade market, Eric Koreen of The Athletic believes they could use additional shooting around Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram more than a big man.
As Koreen writes, Toronto has looked particularly overmatched this season against New York, which has multiple wing defenders capable of slowing down Ingram and Barnes. The Raptors went just 7-of-26 from three-point range in Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks, and are currently 24th in the NBA in three-point attempts and makes per game and 27th in three-point percentage (34.2%).
“We took only one three in that (third) quarter, and that’s not sustainable,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said. “You cannot play against great teams and win (like that).”
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Michael Porter Jr. views the summer trade that sent him from Denver to Brooklyn as a win-win for both the Nuggets and the Nets, tweets Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “I would say it’s a very unique situation where I think both organizations and both teams kind of benefited from the trade,” Porter said. “I don’t look back at it with any saltiness toward the (Nuggets) organization or anything. I think they got a lot of trading me. They got not only Cam (Johnson), but (Jonas) Valanciunas, Bruce (Brown), Tim Hardaway Jr., who’s playing amazing. … I think it’s cool. … So it probably is one of those unique trades where it kind of worked out for everybody.” The 6’10” forward made those comments on Thursday ahead of his first game in Denver as an opposing player, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Porter finished with 38 points, 10 rebounds and two steals, but he was disappointed that Brooklyn’s comeback bid came up short. “There was a little motivation,” Porter said. “We should’ve pulled it out, though. I felt like I missed a couple shots I should’ve made down the stretch.”
- Bulls big man Jalen Smith experienced tightness in his right calf during Thursday’s loss to Miami, per Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link). Smith, who has been starting recently, was ruled out after just 15 minutes of action. However, the injury doesn’t appear serious — he’s listed as questionable for Saturday’s rematch with the Heat.
- The two-way contract Tristan Enaruna signed with the Cavaliers this week covers two seasons, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). The Dutch forward has been a key contributor at the G League level this season for Cleveland’s affiliate team, the Charge.
Cavs Sign Tristan Enaruna To Two-Way Contract
One day after waiving Chris Livingston, the Cavaliers have filled their newly created two-way opening, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed forward Tristan Enaruna to a two-way contract.
Enaruna, 24, went undrafted out of Cleveland State out of 2024 and has signed non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts in each of his first two professional seasons, joining the Celtics for training camp in 2024 and the Cavs for camp in 2025. In each case, he was waived in October and reported to his team’s G League affiliate.
Enaruna appeared in 46 games for the Maine Celtics last season and has seen action in 23 contests for the Cleveland Charge so far in 2025/26. The 6’7″ forward has taken a significant step forward in his second year in the G League, averaging 19.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 30.8 minutes per game on .533/.355/.750 shooting. His shooting line in ’24/25 was just .466/.294/.588.
While Livingston didn’t suit up much for Cleveland, the team has still used 69 of 90 “under-15” games for its two-way players — a team carrying fewer than 15 players on its standard roster can only have its two-way players active for up to 90 combined games.
Enaruna will be eligible to be active for up to 22 games if he spends the rest of the season with the Cavs, but the club will need to fill its 15th roster spot at some point to take full advantage of that limit. Nae’Qwan Tomlin (who has been active for 44 games) and Luke Travers (19 active games) are Cleveland’s other two-way players.
Cavaliers Waive Killian Hayes
The Cavaliers have waived Killian Hayes, reports HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto (via Twitter).
Scotto notes that Hayes, who was on an Exhibit 10 deal with the Cavs, is expected to join the team’s G League affiliate, the Cleveland Charge.
Hayes was selected seventh overall by the Pistons during the 2020 draft. He played four years in Detroit before spending part of last season with the Nets, with whom he averaged 9.0 points and 5.2 assists per game while shooting 38.1% on three-pointers in six appearances.
Hayes also played 18 games with the Long Island Nets, averaging 20.7 points, 7.6 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per contest while knocking down 41.7% of his threes.
A strong defender as a 6’5″ point guard, Hayes has struggled with scoring consistency during his time in the league, as evidenced by his career 28.1% three-point mark. Scotto notes that he is still hopeful to find another NBA deal.
Hayes was one of three players cut today by the Cavaliers, per NBA.com’s official transaction log. Camp invitees Tristan Enaruna and Norchad Omier were also placed on waivers and will likely end up with the Charge as well.
Cavaliers Sign Killian Hayes, Four Others
September 26: The Cavaliers have officially signed Hayes, according to the team, which formally announced its training camp roster on Friday.
The Cavs also completed previously reported Exhibit 10 agreements with Baylor forward Norchad Omier and former Auburn forward Chaney Johnson, in addition to signing free agent wing Tristan Enaruna and forward Miller Kopp. The club now has a full 21-man roster for camp.
September 23: The Cavaliers and former lottery pick Killian Hayes have agreed to a contract, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype 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 21-man preseason 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 reportedly 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’ll have to do it by earning a standard 15-man spot.
Cavs Rumors: Oladipo, Wade, Tomlin, Enaruna
The Cavaliers currently have 13 players on standard contracts and it’s not yet clear how they intend to fill their 14th roster spot, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com writes in a subscriber-only mailbag article.
As Fedor explains, head coach Kenny Atkinson‘s switch-heavy defensive system means another versatile wing will always be an option for the Cavs, but it also wouldn’t be a surprise if the team adds another ball-handler.
Darius Garland will be coming off toe surgery, Lonzo Ball has only played in 35 games over the past three seasons for health reasons (mostly knee-related), and it remains to be seen whether the club is comfortable using Craig Porter Jr. in a major role, Fedor writes. While Donovan Mitchell is another ball-handling option, Cleveland won’t want to lean on him too heavily early in the season.
One free agent guard who is at least on the Cavs’ radar is two-time All-Star Victor Oladipo. A member of the front office attended Oladipo’s recent workout in Las Vegas, according to Fedor, who says Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has long been a fan of the former No. 2 overall pick. In fact, Fedor describes Gilbert as having been “eager” to use the No. 1 overall pick in 2013 on Oladipo until David Griffin, then an assistant general manager, lobbied for Anthony Bennett.
Here’s more on the Cavs from Fedor:
- There was a good deal of “chatter” in Las Vegas about the possibility of the Cavaliers trading forward Dean Wade, says Fedor. Wade is on an expiring $6.6MM contract in 2025/26 and there’s a sense that he may not be a priority for a cap-strapped Cleveland team beyond the coming season. Sources tell Cleveland.com that contending teams from each conference have expressed interest in Wade, with Fedor adding that the Mavericks are among the clubs believed to be fans of him.
- If Wade were to be moved, it could create an opportunity for two-way forward Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who made just five NBA appearances as a rookie last season. The 24-year-old “continues to turn heads” after averaging 20.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.8 steals per game on .582/.409/.800 shooting in four Summer League outings, Fedor notes, and could compete for rotation minutes this fall.
- Former Cleveland State wing Tristan Enaruna, who had a good Summer League for the Cavs (13.3 PPG, .568/.429/.500 shooting), is among the players the club is considering for its open two-way slot alongside Tomlin and Luke Travers, per Fedor.
- Fedor observes that improving the defense was a priority for the Cavaliers this summer after the unit struggled in the club’s second-round series loss to Indiana. That’s one reason why the front office prioritized retaining Sam Merrill over Ty Jerome. The belief in Cleveland, Fedor writes, is that Merrill and new additions Ball and Larry Nance Jr. won’t get played off the court in the postseason.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Walker, Claxton, Hart, Raptors
The Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate, officially announced their training camp roster this weekend ahead of the 2024/25 NBAGL season. The roster features several players who were in camp with the NBA team earlier this month, including Ron Harper Jr., Jay Scrubb, Tristan Enaruna, and Dmytro Skapintsev.
However, there’s one notable absence among the players waived by the Celtics during the preseason: Lonnie Walker.
Walker’s contract with Boston included a $77.5K Exhibit 10 bonus that he could earn by spending at least 60 days with Maine, and he said in September that he was “perfectly fine” with the idea of playing in the G League. But it appears as if he’s still weighing his choices.
While playing in the G League may be the most logical path back to the NBA for Walker, there are other options available to him this season. The veteran wing was rumored last week to be drawing interest from Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Nets center Nic Claxton, who was sidelined by a hamstring injury during the preseason, has come off the bench in the first two games of the regular season and has been on a strict minutes limit, logging 15 minutes on Wednesday and 20 on Friday. That limit will increase again on Sunday, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. As Lewis writes in a full story, it sounds like head coach Jordi Fernandez will only reinsert Claxton into the starting five once he’s been cleared for a starter’s workload. “Obviously, you can be creative. But if you go to starter minutes, then it’s somewhere around low 30s, because I think if you do more, health is an issue,” Fernandez said. “But for me, starters usually play starting at 24 all the way to 33-34, that range.”
- Josh Hart struggled to find his fit in the Knicks‘ new-look starting five during the preseason, but those frustrations haven’t carried over to the regular season, writes Andrew Crane of The New York Post. After scoring 20 points on Friday in the team’s first win of the season, Hart made light of his preseason comment about feeling “lost” on offense. “I was just having fun with y’all, man,” he told reporters. “I knew I was going to be solid. It was preseason. I have a good feel for everybody. I think we’re all really getting into a rhythm offensively and, more importantly, defensively — playing with each other, seeing where everyone likes the ball and those kind of things. I’m good.”
- A lawsuit filed by ex-Clippers strength and conditioning coach Randy Shelton against his former team opens an old wound for Raptors fans, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. The suit alleges the Clippers conducted an extensive recruitment of Leonard during his time in Toronto that “leapt well beyond the bounds of the NBA constitution” and included sending then-assistant GM Mark Hughes to about 75% of the Raptors’ games in 2018/19. Leonard, whose desire to play in Southern California was widely known, left Toronto for L.A. in 2019 immediately after winning a title with the Raptors.
Celtics Sign Jay Scrubb, Waive Tristan Enaruna
The Celtics have made a change at the back end of their 21-man preseason roster, signing free agent guard Jay Scrubb and waiving forward Tristan Enaruna, according to the official transaction logs at RealGM and NBA.com.
Bobby Manning of CLNS, who first reported during the offseason that Boston was expected to sign Scrubb to an Exhibit 10 contract once he had fully recovered from his ACL injury, confirms (via Twitter) that the 24-year-old did in fact receive an Exhibit 10 deal.
A second-round pick in 2020, Scrubb appeared in 24 games for the Clippers and Magic across his first three NBA seasons. He signed a two-way contract with the Celtics last July, but tore his right ACL during a practice during the preseason and was waived before the regular season began. The 6’5″ shooting guard announced on Instagram on Tuesday that he has been “fully cleared,” approximately a year after sustaining that knee injury.
Scrubb remains eligible for a two-way contract, so his Exhibit 10 deal could be converted before opening night. However, it’s more likely that he’ll be waived and will report to the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate. Maine acquired Scrubb’s returning rights from the South Bay Lakers last month.
If Scrubb is waived and then spends at least 60 days with the Celtics’ NBAGL team, he’ll earn an Exhibit 10 bonus worth up to $77.5K.
Celtics Sign Tristan Enaruna To Exhibit 10 Contract
July 11: Enaruna’s Exhibit 10 deal with Boston is official, per RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.
June 27: Undrafted rookie free agent Tristan Enaruna has agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Celtics, reports Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress.com (Twitter link).
A 6’8″ Dutch-born wing, Enaruna spent his first two college seasons at Kansas from 2019-21 before transferring to Iowa State for 2021/22 and then to Cleveland State for 2022-24. After playing a modest role through his junior year, he broke out with the Vikings over the past two seasons as a starter, averaging 19.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 33.2 minutes per game across 35 outings in 2023/24.
Enaruna, who has been named to the All-Horizon League first team in each of the past two years, was the No. 40 prospect on ESPN’s list of undrafted rookies. He also earned MVP honors at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament this spring, notes Chepkevich.
An Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract that doesn’t count against a team’s cap unless the player makes the regular season roster. It can be converted to a two-way contract before the season begins or can put a player in line for a bonus if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate. The maximum Exhibit 10 bonus was $75K last season and will increase at the same rate as the salary cap in 2024/25.
No free agent contracts for the 2024/25 season can be signed until July, so Enaruna’s deal with Boston is just tentative for now.