Local D’Moi Hodge has signed a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Lakers after going undrafted in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday.
The deal will allow for Hodge to simultaneously be rostered on the Lakers NBA team and its G League affiliate, therefore keeping his NBA goal alive.
The NBA introduced two-way contracts in 2017 as a means of helping undrafted players secure deals with NBA teams.
According to one report, the two-way contract was introduced to benefit undrafted players who do not make the cut in the NBA Draft and enables teams to keep these players on retainer without having to sign to a full-time contract.
“Players drafted during the first or second-round of an NBA draft are also often signed to two-way contracts. Two-way players are often considered to be the “16th and 17th men” on a roster,” the report stated.
It added, “Players on two-way contracts are eligible to play in 50 of their team’s 82 [regular season NBA] games. When the contracts were initially introduced, players were limited to 45 days with the team, which included practice and travel days.”
In the 2022-2023 season, Hodge enjoyed tremendous success at the Missouri Tigers, helping his team to one of their most successful campaigns in years.
He finished second on the team with 14.7 points per game, while establishing a new school record with 91 steals and becoming the fifth Tiger to connect on 100 3-pointers in a single season.
D’Moi’s 91 steals surpassed the previous school record by 15 and rank as the sixth-most in SEC history. Overall, he placed fourth nationally with 2.60 steals per game, 32nd with 2.86 triples per game and 37th with a three-point clip of 40.0.
French basketball rising star Victor Wembanyama was drafted as the number one overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs, while Alabama freshman standout Brandon Miller was selected by the Charlotte Hornets as the number two pick and Scoot Henderson number three overall after being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers.