Cavs Announce Signing Of Luke Travers

August 28, 2024

What we all said was happening has now become true. The Cavaliers have signed guard/forward Luke Travers to a two-way contract, the team announced in an official press release.

Along with Travers, the Cavs have forward Emoni Bates and JT Thor on two-way deals. Three two-ways is the NBA limit. The Cleveland Charge should be pretty tough to beat next season.

Meanwhile, the Cavs have three players they believe can be a part of their long-term vision under new coach Kenny Atkinson.

Travers, 22, is 6-foot-7 guard/forward and has spent his entire career playing in Australia — sans a few runs with the Cavs’ summer team. That included last month. He was originally selected with the No. 56 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

Overall, in three years combined at summer league, Travers is averaging 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks. He averaged 12.4 points and 7.6 boards in 36 games with Melbourne last season.

After the season, he opted out of his deal with Melbourne and expressed a desire to play in the NBA, specifically with Cleveland.

The Cavs now have reached the NBA limit of three players on two-way contracts — Travers and second-year forward Emoni Bates and forward JT Thor.

So that means all three will split their time between the Cavaliers and Cleveland Charge of the G League, provided none are signed to a standard deal before the season. players on two-ways deals can appear in up to 50 NBA games. At that point, a team needs to decide whether to sign the player to a standard deal or waive him.

Forwards Isaiah Mobley and Pete Nance were other candidates with two-way deals, though it appears as if Mobley won’t return to the franchise and Nance potentially only with the Charge.

Per the Cavs’ release on Travers:

“The Australia NBL Cup winner (2021) and NBL champion (2020) has appeared in 139 games (76 starts) over the last five seasons with the Perth Wildcats and Melbourne United in the NBL (Australian Basketball League), holding career averages of 8.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.87 steals in 20.7 minutes.

Additionally, he was also a member of the Cavaliers Summer League team for the past three years, including the 2023 NBA Summer League Championship team, where he averaged 7.5 points on .487 shooting from the field, 6.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 steals and 2.17 blocks in 23.2 minutes.”