Zylan Cheatham

Pelicans.com

The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that the team has signed free agent forward Zylan Cheatham and guard Josh Gray to two-way contracts. Per team policy, terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Cheatham, 6-8, 220, joined the Pelicans’ Summer League team after going undrafted out of Arizona State in 2019. In six Summer League games, Cheatham averaged 5.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks. During his senior season at Arizona State, the Phoenix native started all 34 games and averaged 12.1 points, a Pac-12 leading 10.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists on his way to Pac-12 First-Team and Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honors.

Gray, 6-1, 182, most recently appeared in six games as a member of the Brooklyn Nets’ 2019 Summer League team, averaging 12.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.3 steals. As a member of the Korean Basketball League’s Changwon LG Sakers in 2018-19, Gray averaged 17.3 points, 3.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 24.3 minutes per game. Undrafted out of Louisiana State University in 2016, Gray appeared in 95 games (37 starts) with the G League’s Northern Arizona Suns from 2016-18, averaging 16.2 points, 5.4 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.9 steals in 29.3 minutes per game. He also appeared in five NBA games with the Phoenix Suns during the 2017-18 season, averaging 6.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals in 17.2 minutes per contest.

Per NBA rules, teams are permitted sign two players to two-way contracts in addition to the 15-man regular season roster. A two-way player for the Pelicans will provide services primarily to the team’s NBA G League affiliate – the Erie BayHawks – but can spend up to 45 days with New Orleans, not including any time prior to the start of Erie’s training camp and at the conclusion of their season.

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Pelicans sign Cheatham and Gray to two-way contracts

Jim Eichenhofer

LAS VEGAS – New Orleans forward Kenrich Williams put both hands on the back of his head, then stared at teammate Jaxson Hayes, like a stunned sibling who’d just watched his younger brother break a window or something valuable in their home.

Williams’ what-did-you-just-do disbelief personified many observers’ reaction to Hayes’ soaring dunk Monday over Chicago defender Mychal Mulder, a second-quarter slam featured Tuesday on countless websites – and an easy choice for SportsCenter’s No. 1 top play.

“I was just, ‘Woah! What was that?!’ ” Williams said, smiling. “He took the gravity out of the gym. Everybody was turned up after that dunk, and it really got us going from a team standpoint.”

The Pelicans went on to register a 109-72 thumping of the Bulls, partly behind Hayes’ game-best 28 points, but the talk of the night was the No. 8 overall draft pick’s jaw-dropping slam in Thomas & Mack Center. The 6-foot-11 Hayes called it the best dunk of his basketball career “by far,” having trouble naming a runner-up. In the hours after the highlight made the rounds everywhere on TV and the Internet, the University of Texas product’s phone was inundated with text messages. On social media, it was impossible for him to view every clip sent to him.

“I’ve seen the video close to a thousand times now,” the Cincinnati native said. “I’ve been tagged in it so many times. If you look at my tags, it’s at least 100. All my friends sent it to me, all of my family sent it. I’ve seen it over and over.”

Pelicans reserve Zylan Cheatham was getting a breather on the team’s bench at the time of Hayes’ dunk, but that gave him an ideal vantage point to witness the vicious jam.

“I had a perfect view of it,” Cheatham said, before providing a fitting description of Hayes’ elevation: “He went up, and then he went up again. It was like he jumped twice. His neck was at the rim. It was unbelievable to see a guy that tall and that long get that high in the air. Unbelievable.”

Although the highlight stunned Williams and many fans watching either in-arena or on TV, Cheatham was familiar enough with Hayes’ repertoire to expect something spectacular – just maybe not exactly that unusual.

“I knew he was very capable of something like that,” the Arizona State product said. “He’ll be walking around in Crocs and do a windmill dunk. He showed me videos of him doing a windmill from the free throw line. So I knew he could do it, but it was just crazy to see him do it in live action, especially in his first (summer league) game.”

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Jaxson Hayes dunk over Bulls defender goes viral, was SportsCenter's top highlight

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