Kylor Kelly’s G League Path to the League

With the expansion to G League over time, NBA teams used him as a talent pool for two-way contracts and 10-day contracts. Last year, Kylor Kelly got his first taste of the NBA regular season after parlaying a strong stint in the G League with the South Bay Lakers into a two-way deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

The The Mavericks kept Kylor Kelly on the roster just under two months before he cut it, after which he returned to the G League on the South Bay roster. Not long after, the New Orleans Pelicans called with a 10-day contract. With Kelly’s 10 days up immediately 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, Kelly signed the No. 10 contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, but it was cut before the start of training camp. He is played with their partner in the South Bay G League in hopes of earning another NBA call-up at some point. He was able to gain valuable insight during his calls last season.

“When I first got there with the Mavericks, it was a great experience,” Kelly said after a recent game in the South Bay. “I had a lot of veterans giving me instructions. Just stay in the gym and do more than the other guy.”

What attracted NBA teams to Kelley was his defensive ability and rebounding ability. Since playing in South Bay, he has been the team’s defensive anchor in the paint, and is a double-double threat on a nightly basis. In just his third career NBA game, he finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the Mavericks’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the three games he played with the Pelicans, he had games of seven, six and five rebounds. He played in the 2024 Summer League with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2025 Summer League with the Orlando Magic where he also showed an affinity for defense and rebounding. Kelly is a capable shooter around the basket as well as effective at running the rim.

For Kelly, he plays a role that will make him stand out and help the team.

“Ever since last year, I already knew my role coming back was to lead the defensive end, and then the offensive role was to sprint the floor, set tough screens, get our guys open and just roll hard,” Kelly said. “My role doesn’t change much … to be able to switch guards in crunch time, protect the rim, all that stuff.”

This season, South Bay has had some solid playmakers, and Kelly has taken advantage of the opportunity to get his passes out more easily. Playing alongside RJ Davis, who finds a balance between scorer and playmaker, has helped Kelly be more effective offensively. He moves without the ball and Davies will find him.

And Kelly returns the favor, setting screens for Davis and the guards, getting them open and providing them with a consistent lob threat around the basket.

“Keelor ​​has 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 game in the South Bay. “Just to have that trust relationship. We were able to find Kylor, and he does a good job of setting screens and then making plays. He speaks well, and we just have to reward the bigs.”

Kelly appeared in 26 games this season with South Bay. He averaged 8.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.2 blocks while shooting 66.4 percent from the field. While his play around the rim and defensive effort is what sets him apart, he also continues to add to his game.

Over the past two seasons, South Bay head coach Zach Guthrie has made development a priority, especially with Kelly, and he’s seeing it start to pay off. He even trusted Kelly to make more decisions with the ball in his hands.

“Keelor ​​is a big part of our development. We watch film with him, work on him, practice and repeat him against live defenders and read to help make that decision. The game is ultimately a series of decisions, so he has to be able to have those repetitions in that decision-making process,” Guthrie said after a recent game in the South Bay. “A lot of times, he doesn’t even roll to that short roll, he rolls all the way to the rim which causes the defense to collapse.”

“When I was in Utah, we joked about the screen assists that Rudy Gobert gets, but that’s a way to properly credit the impact they have on the game,” Guthrie continued. “It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet other than the plus/minus and the win columns. And Kylor affects the win.”