Brooklyn Nets reshuffle roster, sign Killian Hayes to 10-day contract

The team also converted Tyrese Martin to a standard, multi-year contract, creating the roster spot by waiving Bojan Bogdanović. Plus, injury updates.

On Wednesday afternoon, one day before the final stretch of the Brooklyn Nets’ 2024-25 campaign begins, the team re-jiggered the back-end of the roster, taking a couple more swings on reclamation projects.

Already armed with one open roster spot thanks to the Ben Simmons buyout, Brooklyn created another by waiving veteran forward Bojan Bogdanović, who will end his second stint in the borough without one game played. Bogdanović will undergo season-ending surgery on a foo that never fully healed, likely eliminating his chances of latching onto another team via buyout. He turns 36 in April. (With Bogdanovic’s departure, Brooklyn has been able to dump $87 million in expiring contracts through waiver or trade over last two months.)

Brooklyn is filling one of those spots by signing current Long Island Net Killian Hayes to a 10-day contract. ESPN’s Shams Charania was first with the news…

(Editor’s note: Charania’s tweet does not include Hayes’ numbers from the G League Tip Off Tournament, wherein he averaged 13.1 and 7.1)

This is not a complete surprise for 2020’s #7 overall pick. Brooklyn signed him to an Exhibit 10 contract last summer, but a hip injury kept him out of all four preseason games. Even though he’s been in the G League since training camp ended, he’s started turning heads of late.

Our own Scott Mitchell profiled him recently, including this tidbit:

In the past seven games, he seemingly has put aside his reputation as a solid playmaker and defender who can’t shoot.

Seven games — interrupted by a bad case of flu — may seem like a small sample to some but it’s promise for Hayes. In that stretch, he’s averaged 23.3 points, 9.1 assists, 4.4 assists and 3.1 steals with shooting splits of 57/50/89. Twice he hit five three’s in a game. His effective field goal percentage in that stretch? 65.3%.

As Mitchell notes, outside shooting has been the biggest bug-a-boo for the 23-year-old in his career, so much so that former Detroit Pistons GM Troy Weaver said this about Hayes when Detroit waived him a little more than a year ago: “It didn’t work because of his shooting. He never got his shooting. The guy can really defend, we’ve seen his playmaking ability, but if you’re a guard in the NBA, you have to make shots.”

Woof.

Hayes’ 10-day contract will pay him $119,000, and it can be extended a second 10-day period, which would cost an additional $119,000.

Now, the Nets entered Wednesday with about $1.76 million of room under the luxury tax, which they are certainly not paying this season. The Hayes signing took a chunk out of that room, as did the totally unsurprising conversion of Tyrese Martin’s two-way contract to a standard, multi-year deal. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype was first with details…

The full details of the agreement have not been released yet, but given Brooklyn’s history of converting two-ways, it is likely a partially guaranteed deal with multiple team options. Indeed, there could be one for this summer.

If that’s the case, Martin would become the fourth Net with a with team option for 2025-26, joining Jalen Wilson, Keon Johnson and Maxwell Lewis. Lewis has $100K guaranteed.

“Nobody deserves it more than him,” said Jordi Fernández at Wednesday’s practice. “He’s worked the whole summer. He’s about what we’re trying to build here. He helps us build the culture. He’s had big games, but the most important thing is he’s about the right things. Working every day, getting better, and we love him. We love him around here. So that’s the reason why, and I’m very, very proud of him and happy for him.”

That leaves one open two-way spot for the Brooklyn Nets to fill, if they so choose. Internal candidates include Long Island standouts Kendall Brown and Drew Timme, who Scott Mitchell notes has recently been balling out in Uniondale. External candidates could include waived casualties of NBA trade deadline, such as 2023 first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino.

Whoever is signed — the final deadline for signing two-ways is March 4 — is likely to spend time in Brooklyn since Long Island has only 16 games left and is not likely to make the G League post-season.

There was also some Long Island news as well Wednesday. Two-way Reece Beekman, who’s been backing up the point for Brooklyn, will be returning to the G League to fill in for Hayes. Tosan Evbuomwan, also on a two-way in case you forgot, will be playing at Nassau Coliseum Friday as will Dariq Whitehead. The opponent is the Osceola Magic who features All-Star Slam Dunk champ Mac McClung.

As for the big-league roster, the Nets may be done maneuvering, though nothing is guaranteed. Should they waive De’Anthony Melton and his torn ACL, they’d create yet another open roster spot.

However, given that the Hayes and Martin signings push them ever-closer to the luxury tax threshold, Sean Marks & Co. would have to get tremendously creative to pursue such an option.

For now though, Tyrese Martin has earned a full-time NBA contract, and Killian Hayes is back in the league. They’re expected to speak with the media in the coming days.

Injury Updates

Not only did the Brooklyn Nets make roster moves on Wednesday, but Jordi Fernández updated the media with injury news on Cam Thomas and Noah Clowney. Good news, bad news.

Let’s start with the good: Thomas, who has played just 19 games this season with left hamstring troubles, is set to resume 5-on-5 work on Thursday.

“Tomorrow he’ll have his first five-on-five,” said Fernández. “So we’re excited to have him play here in house, five-on-five, see how he feels, and then keep going from there.”

He spoke further on potentially adding the 23-year-old bucket-getter to what’s been one of the league’s very worst offenses for weeks now, despite recent wins powered by its defense: “It’s always a process. But I just see it as a positive. He was so impactful and so good for the group, and I always see it as a positive … whatever the groups that we put together. It’s going to be on me, and we just know that he’s going to make us better.”

Unfortunately, there is also bad news.

Fernández revealed that Noah Clowney suffered a setback in his recovery from an ankle sprain, an “unfortunate” play during five-on-five action when he sprained it again.

“That was unfortunate, but those are things that you cannot control. It was just bad luck, stepping wrong or into something. He’ll be back soon. He’s, right now, doing his 1-on-0 workouts. So he’s moving around, he’s shooting, and we know we’ll have him back at some point.”

This is the second separate instance this season of Clowney missing 7+ consecutive games with a sprained ankle, as he will not be suiting up for Brooklyn’s first contest out of the All-Star break.

He’ll be watching from the sidelines at Barclays Center though, as the Nets take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday evening, at 7:30 p.m. ET.

• Nets’ Bojan Bogdanovic out for season with injury that ruins buyout chances – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Nets shuffle roster out of All-Star break; Injury updates – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News
• Sources: Nets’ Bojan Bogdanovic to have season-ending foot surgery – Shams Charania – ESPN
• Nets to convert Tyrese Martin to standard contract following Ben Simmons buyout – Erik Slater – Clutch Points