Exploring Jaylen Adams’ NBA career
After going undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft, Adams quickly found a landing spot with the Atlanta Hawks where he signed on a two-way contract.
Despite his status as an undrafted rookie on a two-way contract, Adams got to see meaningful minutes with both the Hawks and their G League affiliate, the Erie Bayhawks. As Adams started to rattle off some seismic scoring performances in Erie, Adams started to see more time in Atlanta.
That eventually led to his two-way contract being converted to an NBA deal midway through the 2018-19 season. From there, Adams finished out the year in Atlanta and ultimately averaged 3.2 points on .345/.338/.778 shooting splits, 1.9 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 0.4 steals across 428 total minutes in 34 appearances.
After a rough showing with the Hawks during the 2019 Summer League in Las Vegas, Adams’ time in Atlanta came to an end after they had waived him ahead of his salary guaranteeing for the 2019-20 season.
That move eventually freed him up to join the Bucks ahead of their 2019 training camp where he signed an Exhibit 10 deal, giving him a $50,000 guarantee and the ability to add him to the Herd.
While in Oshkosh, Adams and the Herd quickly got down to business in writing their highly successful 2019-20 campaign under first-year head coach Chase Buford. And the combination of Adams, Frank Mason III and Rayjon Tucker formed the Herd’s three-headed scoring monster early on in the season before Tucker eventually a call-up with the Utah Jazz.
The loss of Tucker didn’t slow down either Adams or the Herd and Adams’ brilliant play eventually led to him earning a call up with Team USA during their AmeriCup qualifiers in February earlier this year. Unfortunately, Adams and the Herd’s season was cut short due to the season stoppage and eventual cancellation of the 2019-20 G League season as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In his 33 appearances with the Herd, Adams averaged 21.5 points on a .486/.407/.788 slash line, 5.7 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.8 steals over 32.7 minutes per contest. Those marks helped Adams land on the All-NBA G League first team and finish as the runner up in G League MVP voting to Mason.
While his year was cut short with the Herd and the Bucks organization as a whole, Adams got a lifeline to land with the Portland Trail Blazers as they brought him on a substitute for Trevor Ariza, who opted out of the restart. Although he didn’t see any playing time during the eight seeding games, Adams did get 21 playoff minutes during the Blazers’ first round series against the reigning NBA champs, the Los Angeles Lakers.