The Orlando Magic Have Signed A New Player
On Monday night, the Orlando Magic released a statement saying that they had agreed to a deal with free agent guard Joel Ayayi.
While the specifics of his contract were not released, it is safe to assume that this deal is nothing more than a training camp type of deal in order for the Magic to own Ayayi’s rights, allowing him to play with the Lakeland Magic in the NBA G League this upcoming year.
Ayayi, 22, went undrafted in 2021 out of Gonzaga where he earned First-Team All-Conference honors, as well as being named the Most Outstanding Player in the 2020 West Coast Conference Tournament.
Signing a two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers in August 2021, the Lakers waived him before the start of the 2021-22 regular season, allowing him to sign with the Washington Wizards shortly after. The young guard was then waived by Washington this past March.
While he got into seven games this past season with the Wizards, Ayayi barely played any time at all, as he was really only inserted into the game in “mop-up” duty when the game had already been decided.
In the G League with the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards G League affiliates, Ayayi started in 29 games and averaged 10.7 points, 6.6 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Joel Ayayi joins Drake Jeffries, Simi Shittu and Alex Morales as players on the Orlando Magic’s roster who earned Exhibit-10 training camp deals this offseason. With the Magic already having 15 players on guaranteed contracts for this upcoming year though, as well as both two-way roster spots filled, it is very likely that Ayayi will be waived and end up in the G League once again.
