Nets Sign Hayes, Promote Martin, Waive Bogdanovic

FEBRUARY 20: The Nets have officially signed Hayes and promoted Martin while waiving Bogdanovic, the team announced today. Martin’s contract is a multi-year deal, per the Nets.


FEBRUARY 19: The Nets are finalizing an agreement with G League guard Killian Hayes, who will sign a 10-day contract with the team, agent Yann Balikouzou tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

The Nets have an open spot on their 15-man roster but are also promoting Tyrese Martin from his two-way deal to a standard contract, so a second opening will be necessary. According to Charania (Twitter link), Brooklyn is creating that extra opening by waiving forward Bojan Bogdanovic.

The No. 7 overall pick of the 2020 draft, Hayes appeared in 210 games for the Pistons from 2020-24 but has been out of the NBA after being cut by Detroit last February. He averaged 8.1 points, 5.2 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 26.1 minutes per game as a Piston and struggled with his shot, making just 38.2% of his attempts from the floor, including 27.7% of his three-point tries.

The French point guard signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Nets in the offseason, but he sustained a hip injury which caused him to miss all of Brooklyn’s preseason games and was subsequently waived prior to the 2024/25 campaign.

Since getting healthy, Hayes has been playing for the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League affiliate. In 28 total games for the NBAGL squad, he has averaged 16.8 points, 7.7 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.3 steals in 33.9 minutes per contest, posting a shooting line of .467/.351/.692.

While some European-born prospects head back overseas when they can’t secure an NBA contract, Hayes viewed the G League as his best route back into the league and recently referred to an NBA return as his “only goal.” The 23-year-old will achieve that goal for at least 10 days — once that contract expires, the Nets would have the option of signing him to a second 10-day deal before having to make a decision on whether or not to retain him for the rest of the season.

Hayes will earn $128,603 on his 10-day deal with Brooklyn, while the team takes on a cap hit of $119,972.

Word broke earlier today that Bogdanovic would be undergoing season-ending surgery on his foot. Since he’s on an expiring contract and almost certainly wasn’t in the Nets’ plans beyond this season, he was a clear-cut candidate to be waived if and when the team needed a roster spot.

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