With the expansion of the G League over time, NBA teams have used it as talent pool for two-way contracts and 10-day contracts. Last year, Kylor Kelley got his first taste of the NBA regular season after turning a strong stint in the G League with the South Bay Lakers into a two-way deal with the Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks kept Kylor Kelley on the roster for a little less than two months before cutting him, upon which he returned to the G League on South Bay’s roster. It wasn’t long after that, that the New Orleans Pelicans came calling with a 10-day contract. Given that Kelley’s 10-day expired right at the end of the regular season, the Pelicans kept him on the roster for the final game of the 2024-25 season.
This year, Kelley signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, but was cut before the start of training camp. He’s been playing with their South Bay G League affiliate in hopes of earning another NBA call-up at some point. He was able to gain valuable insight during his call-ups last season.
“When I first got there to the Mavericks, it was a great experience,” Kelley said after a recent South Bay game. “I had a lot of veterans to give me pointers. Just stay in the gym and do more than the other guy.”
What drew NBA teams to Kelley was his defensive and rebounding ability. Since he’s played with South Bay, he’s been the team’s defensive anchor in the paint, and is a double-double threat on a nightly basis. In only his third career NBA game, he finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds albeit in a Mavericks’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In the three games he played with the Pelicans, he had games of seven, six and five rebounds, respectively. He played 2024 summer league with the Oklahoma City Thunder and 2025 summer league with the Orlando Magic where he also showed an affinity for defense and rebounding. Kelley is a capable scorer around the basket as well as an efficient rim-running big.
For Kelley, it’s playing the role that will make him stand out and help the team.
“Since last year, I already knew my role coming back was being an anchor defensively, and then the offensive role is sprint the floor, set hard screens, get our guys open and just roll hard,” Kelley said. “My role doesn’t change much. . .being able to switch on guards in crunch time, protecting the rim, all that stuff.”
This season, South Bay has had a couple of solid playmakers, and Kelley has taken advantage of being able to get easier buckets off their passes. Playing alongside RJ Davis, who is finding that balance between being a scorer and a playmaker, has helped Kelley in being more efficient offensively. He moves without the ball, and Davis is going to find him.
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And Kelley returns the favor, setting screens for the Davis and the guards, getting them open, and providing them a consistent lob threat around the basket.
“Kylor’s been big for us all season, his rim protection, but also being able to find him and give him some easy buckets,” Davis said after a recent South Bay game. “Just having that trust relationship. We’re able to find Kylor, and he does a good job setting screens and then rolling. He does a good job of talking, and we just got to reward the bigs.”
Kelley has appeared in 26 games this season with South Bay. He’s been averaging 8.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.2 blocked shots with splits of 66.4 percent shooting from the field. While his play around the rim and defensive effort is what’s set him apart, he’s also continuing to add to his game.
Over the past two seasons, South Bay head coach Zach Guthrie has made development a priority, especially with Kelley, and he sees it starting to pay off. He’s even trusted Kelley to make more decisions with the ball in his hands.
“Kylor is a big pieces of our development. We watch film with him, we work on it, we practice and rep it against live defenders and reads to help make those decision. The game is ultimately a series of decisions, so he’s got to be able to have those reps in that decision-making process,” Guthrie said after a recent South Bay game. “A lot of times, he doesn’t even roll to that short roll, he rolls all the way the rim which causes the defense to collapse.”
“When I was in Utah, we joked about the screen assists that Rudy Gobert gets, but it’s a way to properly credit the impact they have on the game,” Guthrie continued. “That doesn’t show up in the stat sheet other than plus/minus and the win column. And Kylor impacts winning.”