Chandler Vaudrin

Cavaliers Waive Chandler Vaudrin

The Cavaliers have waived forward Chandler Vaudrin, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets.

Vaudrin was signed by Cleveland to a camp deal earlier this month.

The Big South Player of the Year in 2021, Vaudrin had been on track to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Cavaliers a year ago after going undrafted out of Winthrop. However, the 25-year-old point guard tore his ACL while playing for Cleveland’s Summer League team and missed his entire rookie entire season.

Vaudrin will likely wind up with the Cleveland Charge, the Cavs’ G League team. He can become an affiliate player, since his G League rights weren’t previously held by another team. He could earn a bonus of up to $50K under the terms of the Exhibit 10 contract if he’s with the Charge for at least 60 days.

Contract Details: Steward, Kleber, Pickett, Vaudrin

DJ Steward‘s new deal with the Kings is a one-year, minimum-salary contract, but it doesn’t include Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned. It’s a standard contract that features a small partial guarantee worth $50K.

If Steward is eventually waived, he would still be eligible to play for the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate, since his guarantee doesn’t exceed $50K. So the most tangible difference between Steward’s deal and an Exhibit 10 contract is that Sacramento won’t have the option of converting it into a two-way contract. The former Duke guard isn’t ineligible to sign a two-way deal with the Kings, but he would have to pass through waivers first.

Here are a few more contract details from around the NBA:

  • Maxi Kleber‘s new three-year extension with the Mavericks is fairly straightforward — it features $11,000,000 annual base salaries in each of the three seasons and doesn’t include any bonuses or options years. Kleber’s extension will begin in 2023/24.
  • The contracts signed with the Cavaliers by Jamorko Pickett and Chandler Vaudrin are Exhibit 10 deals, Hoops Rumors has learned. Both of Cleveland’s two-way slots are currently full, so Pickett and Vaudrin could end up becoming affiliate players for the Cleveland Charge, the Cavs’ G League team.
  • In case you missed it, we’re tracking each team’s players with partially guaranteed and non-guaranteed contracts, including Exhibit 10 deals, right here.

Cavs Sign Jamorko Pickett, Chandler Vaudrin To Camp Deals

1:14pm: Both signings are official, per RealGM’s NBA transaction log.


10:14am: The Cavaliers are set to sign free agent forward Jamorko Pickett and guard Chandler Vaudrin to training camp contracts, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Pickett, who went undrafted out of Georgetown in 2021, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Pistons, appearing in 13 games at the NBA level and averaging 3.8 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 13.5 MPG.

The 24-year-old saw more action at the G League level, registering 14.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG on .429/.328/.913 shooting in 17 regular season NBAGL games (31.4 MPG) for the Motor City Cruise. After becoming an unrestricted free agent, he suited up for the Cavs’ Summer League team in Las Vegas this July.

The Big South Player of the Year in 2021, Vaudrin had been on track to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Cavaliers a year ago after going undrafted out of Winthrop. However, the 25-year-old point guard tore his ACL while playing for Cleveland’s Summer League team and missed his entire rookie entire season, so that deal didn’t come to fruition — until now.

The Cavs were said to be working out several veteran free agents earlier this week as they considered how to fill their 20-man training camp roster. Pickett and Vaudrin both participated in those workouts, per Fedor.

Cleveland currently has 16 players under contract (14 on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals), so the team will still have two roster spots available after officially adding Pickett and Vaudrin.

Chandler Vaudrin To Undergo Surgery On Torn ACL

Undrafted Winthrop guard Chandler Vaudrin, who played for the Cavaliers‘ Summer League team, has been diagnosed with a torn ACL and will soon undergo surgery to repair the injury, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter links). The injury occurred in his third Summer League game.

Vaudrin had reportedly agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Cavs, meaning he likely would’ve attended training camp with the team and competed to earn a two-way contract. Instead, it appears his rookie season will be postponed by a year as he recovers from a major knee injury.

Vaudrin – who grew up in Uniontown, Ohio – filled up the stat sheet with 12.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 6.9 APG in 25 games (31.6 MPG) as a senior at Winthrop in 2020/21. He spent his last two college seasons at Winthrop after playing for the Division II Walsh Cavaliers from 2016-18.

We’ll see if Cleveland still ends up signing Vaudrin to an Exhibit 10 deal — if the Cavs like him enough, they could sign him, waive him, then have him report to the Cleveland Charge as an affiliate player. That would allow Vaudrin to rehab his injury with the Cavs’ G League team while receiving a $50K bonus as a result of the Exhibit 10 agreement.

However, it’s also entirely possible that the deal simply doesn’t get finalized due to the injury. In that scenario, the Cavs could circle back to Vaudrin a year from now.

Cavs To Sign Chandler Vaudrin To Exhibit 10 Deal

Undrafted Winthrop guard Chandler Vaudrin is joining the Cavaliers for Summer League play and will sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the team, reports Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (Twitter link).

Vaudrin – who grew up in Uniontown, Ohio – filled up the stat sheet with 12.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 6.9 APG in 25 games (31.6 MPG) as a senior at Winthrop in 2020/21. He spent his last two college seasons at Winthrop after playing for the Division II Walsh Cavaliers from 2016-18.

Vaudrin was the Big South Player of the Year in 2020/21.

While Vaudrin seems unlikely to make the Cavs’ regular season roster next season, it’s possible the team envisions him playing for its G League affiliate, the Cleveland Charge. His Exhibit 10 contract would make him eligible to earn a bonus of up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the Charge.

Draft Notes: Pistons, Timberwolves, Banton, Hornets

Pittsburgh’s Justin Champagnie, Toledo’s Spencer Littleson, UC Santa Barbara’s Jaquori McLaughlin and Florida State’s M.J. Walker are among the players the Pistons worked out on Friday, Keith Smith tweets. The 6’6” Champagnie is ranked No. 63 among all prospects and 10th among small forwards by ESPN. The G League Ignite’s Daishen Nix also participated in the workout. Nix is ranked by No. 55 by ESPN and 10th among point guard prospects.

We have more draft-related news:

  • McLaughlin, ranked No. 93 by ESPN, also worked out recently for the Timberwolves, Darren Wolfson of KSTP tweets. The 6’4” McLaughlin was the Big West’s Conference Player of the Year. Ohio State guard Duane Washington Jr. also visited the Timberwolves, Wolfson adds in a separate tweet. Washington is participating in the G League Elite Camp in Chicago this weekend.
  • Nebraska guard Dalano Banton also received an invite to the Elite Camp, Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated tweets. Blanton averaged 9.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 3.9 APG last season.
  • The Hornets hosted several prospects on Thursday, including North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, Dayton’s Jalen Crutcher, Winthrop’s Chandler Vaudrin, Tennessee’s Yves Pons and Washington’s Nahziah Carter, according to Matthew Stephens of the Charlotte Observer. Pons, a small forward, is ranked No. 88.