Nets to sign Keon Ellis to two-year contract

Charania refers to the second year deal as a “mutual option,” but says it’s fully guaranteed (Twitter link). Those details seem somewhat at odds, so we’ll have to wait to see how exactly the contract is structured.

A former undrafted free agent who finished out his college career at Alabama, Ellis spent his first three-plus seasons with the Kings, who traded him to the Cavaliers ahead of the February deadline. He played well for Cleveland at the end of the 2025/26 regular season, but he wasn’t part of the team’s rotation in the playoffs.

Retaining Ellis was viewed as a lesser priority for the Cavs as they look to re-sign fellow free agent Dean Wade.

Ellis is a little undersized for a guard/forward (he’s listed at 6’4″ and 175 pounds) and he’s not a great play-maker or on-ball scorer. However, he’s an aggressive, active defender who creates lots of turnovers, and has knocked down 40.7% of his three-point attempts over the course of his four NBA seasons. He’s also a good off-ball cutter, having made 59.3% of his career attempts inside the arc.

Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line first connected Ellis to the Nets, noting at the time that he has a preexisting relationship with head coach Jordi Fernandez. Fernandez was previously Sacramento’s top assistant under Mike Brown, who’s now head coach of the Knicks.

As cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (via Twitter), Brooklyn could sign Ellis using cap room or the room exception. It’s unclear which pathways they’ll take with Ellis, Day’Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott, two incumbent Nets who have agreed to re-sign with the team.

Ellis, 26, came in at No. 38 on our list of 2026’s top 50 free agents. He had been on two-way and minimum-salary contracts over his first four years in the league, and it sounds like he’ll be getting a significant pay increase on his new deal with Brooklyn.