Over the past 10 days, several players have earned promotions to either standard or two-way contracts. Several more transactions will be coming this week, as January 5 marks the first day clubs can sign players to standard 10-day contracts and Jan. 7 is the final day in which players who have non-guaranteed salaries (including two-ways) can be waived before their deals become guaranteed.
With that in mind, Keith Smith of Spotrac recently listed 23 players — seven ball-handlers, 10 wings and six bigs — who have been playing well in the G League and are candidates to receive NBA promotions either in the coming days or later in the season. One player from Smith’s list — Tristen Newton — just signed a two-way deal with Houston.
Smith compiled the list based on his own film reviews and spoke to NBA executives, scouts and player agents to solicit their input as well.
Most of the G Leaguers Smith cites have previous NBA experience. That group includes Kobe Bufkin, Killian Hayes, Dalano Banton, Kevin Knox II, Jalen Slawson, Charles Bassey, Moses Brown, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, among others. Bufkin, Bassey and Robinson-Earl actually spent time with NBA teams in 2025/26.
Smith singles out Slawson of the Noblesville Boom as the “best all-around player” to this point in the NBAGL season. A 6’7″ forward who was selected 54th overall in the 2023 draft, Slawson has been filling up the stat sheet for the Pacers‘ affiliate, averaging 21.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 3.0 blocks in 10 games (34.2 minutes per contest).
There are also a handful players on Smith’s list who have not yet received their first NBA call-ups, including Darius Brown II (Cleveland Charge), Teddy Allen (Rio Grande Valley Vipers) and Matthew Cleveland (Texas Legends). According to Smith, Cleveland has been one of the top rookies at the G League level — the undrafted wing out of Miami is suiting up for the Mavericks‘ affiliate.
