2024-25 NBA G League Expansion Draft
With the Phoenix Suns joining the NBA G League with their new affiliate, the Valley Suns, for the 2024-25 season, there was an expansion draft as the first step towards the team filling out its roster. The expansion draft allowed the Valley Suns to acquire the returning rights to players throughout the G League, with protection rules in place for current G League teams to use on their existing returning players.
The NBA G League shared returning player rights lists with current G League teams. Teams had until 5:00 PM ET on Wednesday, June 5, to provide the League Office with a list of up to 12 protected players for this year’s expansion draft. No G League team could lose more than two returning players through the expansion draft.
On Thursday, June 6, the Valley Suns received the list of unprotected players available for selection in the expansion draft.
The Valley Suns submitted the players it wanted to select in the expansion draft to the NBA G League by 3:00 PM ET on Thursday, June 13.
The new Phoenix G League team had the right to select up to 14 unprotected Returning Players, and they could not select more than two unprotected Returning Players from a single existing team. The Valley Suns will retain the League rights to these selected players for two seasons, beginning with the 2023-24 season.
Below is the list of players selected:
Garrison Brooks (Westchester Knicks)
Chaundee Brown Jr. (South Bay Lakers)
Gary Clark (Salt Lake City Stars)
Matt Lewis (Westchester Knicks)
Didi Louzada (Cleveland Charge)
Theo Maledon (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
Emmanuel Mudiay (Iowa Wolves)
Mychal Mulder (Capital City Go-Go)
Jahlil Okafor (Delaware Blue Coats)
Justin Smith (Delaware Blue Coats)
Denzel Valentine (Raptors 905)
Quinndary Weatherspoon (South Bay Lakers)
Lindell Wigginton (Cleveland Charge)
Trevion Williams (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
NOTE: The Valley Suns now own the Returning Player Rights to the 14 players selected during the 2024-25 Expansion Draft. This does not guarantee that these players will play for the Valley Suns next season, but rather that the franchise has the rights to their contracts if they decide to return to the G League.
This year’s was the second season in a row with an expansion draft after the Portland Trail Blazer's G League affiliate team, the Rip City Remix, had theirs in 2023. The most recent expansion draft before that was in 2018 when the New Orleans Pelicans acquired the rights to own and operate an NBA G League team, which is currently known as the Birmingham Squadron. With the addition of the Valley Suns, the G League now has 31 teams with an affiliate team for all 30 NBA franchises.
Notable players’ rights selected in previous NBA G League expansion drafts include New York Knicks center and 2019 NBA G League Finals MVP Isaiah Hartenstein, Milwaukee Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. and former NBA guards Trey Burke and Jimmer Fredette.