{"id":691320,"date":"2026-05-24T10:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691320\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T10:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:38:18","slug":"cyclones-in-the-nba-2025-26-season-iowa-state-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691320\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclones in the NBA: 2025-26 season \u2013 Iowa State Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025-26 NBA regular season came to a close at the end of April, and five Cyclones had highs and lows throughout the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tyrese Haliburton\n<\/p>\n

When you think of Cyclones in the NBA, the first person who probably comes to mind is Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, but if you wanted to watch a Cyclone in the NBA this season, Haliburton was not your guy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tyrese Haliburton celebrates after hitting a 3-pointer against Oklahoma on Jan. 11.<\/p>\n

In the 2025 NBA Finals, Haliburton sustained a ruptured right Achilles tendon, seeing him out for the entirety of the 2025-26 season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Haliburton-less Pacers team struggled to find any momentum this season, going 19-63 and finishing 14th in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The Pacers weren\u2019t able to get a high draft pick for their struggles either, with their pick being unprotected outside of the top four, and the team trading their fifth overall pick for Ivica Zubac, the former Los Angeles Clipper.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Pacers and Iowa State fans, Haliburton will likely be active for the 2026-27 season, possibly giving Indiana another chance at an Eastern Conference title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keshon Gilbert\n<\/p>\n

Keshon Gilbert signed with the Washington Wizards on June 27, 2025, after going undrafted, but didn\u2019t make his NBA debut until 2026.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Gilbert saw a vast amount of minutes in the NBA G League with the Wizards\u2019 affiliates, Capital City Go-Go.<\/p>\n

Gilbert\u2019s G League season was a success: 17.3 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game and 6.7 assists per game put him on the G League\u2019s 2025-26 all-rookie team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Keshon Gilbert (10) at the Iowa State University vs. Brigham Young University men\u2019s basketball game, March 5, 2025, Hilton Coliseum, Ames, Iowa. (Jacob Rice<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Gilbert was called up to the Wizards on a 10-day contract for multiple February matchups, the first of which was against the Brooklyn Nets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 28 minutes of play off the bench, Gilbert accumulated four points, all of which were free throws, three rebounds, two assists and three blocks. The Wizards fell short, though, losing 127-113.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert saw the floor two more times for the Wizards, once vs. the Miami Heat, where he played 13 minutes with no points, and again vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers, where in six minutes of play, he accumulated two steals and his first points from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert was eventually released by the Wizards and signed on a two-way contract with the Atlanta Hawks and their affiliates, the College Park Skyhawks.<\/p>\n

Gilbert seemed much more comfortable, scoring 11 points in 25 minutes of play vs. the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

He was also just an assist short of a double-double, closing his Hawks debut with nine assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert and the Skyhawks fell short of a G League playoff appearance, ending the season with a 14-22 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert will return to Atlanta for the 2026-27 season with a year remaining in his contract. The 22-year-old has a chance to prove himself in the G League after being one of the best rookies throughout 2025 and 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curtis Jones\n<\/p>\n

Curtis Jones was one of two Cyclones making their NBA debut for the 2025-26 season. After going undrafted, the Minnesota native signed with the Denver Nuggets on June 27, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones made his NBA debut Nov. 29, 2025, playing just a minute and a half in a 130-112 victory for the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lack of minutes meant a lack of shots, only allowing Jones to list a singular defensive rebound and a missed field goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Curtis Jones (5) goes for a layup attempt during the Iowa State vs. University of Mississippi men\u2019s basketball game at Fiserv Forum, March 23, 2025, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Jacob Rice<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Jones eventually got his first NBA points just four days later in a 135-120 win for the Nuggets, where he put in a layup with 22 seconds remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones saw the court eight more times throughout the 2025-26 season, recording a season high of five points on eight minutes played vs. the Philadelphia 76ers in a 125-124 loss for the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just like his fellow rookie Gilbert, Jones was logging minutes with the Grand Rapids Gold, the G League affiliate of the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones averaged 20.2 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game and 5.6 assists per game, all on 38% shooting from the field and 34.3% from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones dropped a season-high 40 points and eight rebounds, on 46% shooting, vs. the Capital City Go-Go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gold struggled in the 2025-26 season despite some of Jones\u2019 standout performances, falling well below the cut line to make the playoffs, ending the season 11-25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, Jones is a restricted free agent (RFA) in the 2026 offseason, with the Nuggets retaining the right to match any offer sheet if they choose to bring him back to Denver.<\/p>\n

Blake Hinson\n<\/p>\n

Blake Hinson of the Utah Jazz isn\u2019t listed as Cyclones when you check his ESPN page, but Hinson was on an Iowa State roster for over a year, meaning it\u2019s a disservice to him not to include the former Cyclone on this list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hinson, a Pitt graduate, never played a game for the Cyclones after being injury-redshirted in the 2020-21 season before stepping away from the program in October of 2021.<\/p>\n

Hinson spent some time in the G League for a few years, playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors during the 2024-25 season and the Rip City Remix for the 2025-26 season. Hinson then moved to the Utah Jazz and their affiliates, the Salt Lake City Stars, on a two-way contract Feb. 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Junior transfer Blake Hinson will miss the 2020-21 basketball season for Iowa State. (LUKE LU)<\/p>\n

Eventually, Hinson got a call-up to the first team on Feb. 28, 2026, scoring 11 points on debut with 24 minutes played.<\/p>\n

Hinson saw the floor 13 more times for the Jazz in 2026, with a career high of 30 points on 34 minutes in the Jazz penultimate game of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jazz\u2019s season fell flat before Hinson even had a chance to make an impact, finishing last in the Western Conference with a final record of 22-60.<\/p>\n

Statistically speaking, though, Hinson listed the best stats of any NBA player to wear an Iowa State uniform in the 2025-26 season, listing 11.9 points per game for a struggling Utah Jazz team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Tristan Enaruna\n<\/p>\n

Like Hinson, Tristan Enaruna is a fellow Cyclone that\u2019s not technically a Cyclone. From the Netherlands, Enaruna was part of three programs during his five collegiate seasons.<\/p>\n

Enaruna started his college career at Kansas, where he stayed for his first two seasons, before transferring to Iowa State in 2021.<\/p>\n

While starting in 26 games, the Dutchman averaged 14.4 minutes and 4.3 points per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enaruna\u2019s standout performance as a Cyclone was a 23-point effort in a 77-72 loss to Baylor.<\/p>\n

Enaruna, as well as the rest of the Iowa State team, made their way to the Sweet 16 before losing to Miami 70-56.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enaruna entered the transfer portal that offseason, going to Cleveland State of the Horizon League, his first time outside of the Big 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Tristan Enaruna looks down at the floor after the Cyclones\u2019 72-41 loss to Texas Tech on March 10 at the 2022 Big 12 Men\u2019s Basketball Championship. (Jacob Rice\/Iowa State Daily)<\/p>\n

The move to Cleveland was fantastic for Enaruna, who averaged 15.6 points per game in the 2022-23 season before stepping it up another level in his redshirt senior season, where he averaged 19.6 points per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enaruna declared for the 2024 NBA draft before going undrafted. He eventually signed on a two-way contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, meaning he\u2019d be staying in north Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite signing with the Cavaliers in 2024, Enaruna wouldn\u2019t make his NBA debut until 2026, in a 130-111 win vs. the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

Enaruna scored his first points on debut as well, with a putback layup with 52 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n

Enaruna saw the floor eight more times for the Cavaliers, with a career high in his last game of the season, scoring 15 points on 67% shooting vs. the Wizards.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers and Enaruna have found themselves in the 2026 Eastern Conference Finals vs. the New York Knicks after going to seven games vs. the Raptors and the Pistons. Enaruna has yet to list a minute in the 2026 playoffs.<\/p>\n

Cyclones abroad\n<\/p>\n

Just five former Cyclones were on rosters to end the 2026 season, but many more made impacts abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Talen Horton-Tucker was in the NBA from 2019 to 2025 and is the first and only Cyclone to win an NBA Championship, but the Chicago native has spent his 2025-26 season in Turkey with Fenerbah\u00e7e Beko Istanbul of the EuroLeague.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Iowa State freshman Talen Horton-Tucker spins the ball off his hands for a layup during the first half against Baylor at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City on Thursday, March 14, 2019. (Chris Jorgensen\/Iowa State Daily)<\/p>\n

Horton-Tucker has averaged 15.7 points per game in 40 appearances, with a season-high 30 points in a 104-87 loss to Olympiacos, with former NBA player Evan Fournier scoring 36.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fenerbah\u00e7e ended their season 27-15, making the playoffs, beating \u017dalgiris Kaunas 3-1 in the first round. Next on the agenda is facing Olympiacos in the EuroLeague semi-final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another long-time Cyclone who was in the NBA is Mont\u00e9 Morris, playing for six different NBA teams from 2017 to 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, Morris played his last ever NBA game for the Phoenix Suns. He signed a contract with the Pacers on Sept. 23, 2025, but was cut two days later.<\/p>\n

Morris, with the intent of continuing to play professionally, signed with Olympiacos on Dec. 10, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morris\u2019 impact with Olympiacos has been limited, coming off the bench to average 1.6 points per game in 11:32 minutes.<\/p>\n

Olympiacos ended their 2025-26 campaign 29-12 and swept AS Monaco in the first round of the EuroLeague playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Iowa State senior Monte Morris saves a ball from going out of bounds\u00a0during the Cyclones\u2019 semifinal game against TCU at the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Missouri March 10, 2017. Morris contributed 15 points in the Cyclones 84-63 win over the Horned Frogs.\u00a0 (Emily Blobaum\/Iowa State Daily)<\/p>\n

Morris and Olympiacos will go on to play Horton-Tucker\u2019s Fenerbah\u00e7e side in the semi-finals, guaranteeing a Cyclone in the EuroLeague championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Izaiah Brockington played for St. Bonaventure and Penn State in college, but his redshirt senior year at Iowa State stapled him in Iowa State history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brockington averaged 16.9 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game, but was unable to find a footing in the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brockington suffered an ACL tear during a predraft workout in 2022, which meant he\u2019d go undrafted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After signing with the Birmingham Squadron, Brockington worked hard to secure an NBA contract and was signed by the New Orleans Pelicans for the 2023 NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n

Brockington was signed on a 10-day contract March 3, 2024, and played three minutes on debut vs. the Toronto Raptors, scoring four points and grabbing two rebounds. Unfortunately for Brockington, his NBA dream would end there, with those three minutes being the only three he\u2019d play in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Brockington didn\u2019t give up on the dream of professional basketball, though, signing with the Vancouver Bandits of the Canadian Elite Basketball League for 2025. Brockington then signed with the New Zealand Breakers of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

\"\"Izaiah Brockington dunks the ball over Kansas forward Mitch Lightfoot on Feb. 1. (Collin Maguire\/Iowa State Daily)<\/p>\n

Brockington has made a name for himself in Oceania, averaging 15.9 points per game for the Breakers and claimed a season-high 27 points vs. the Illawarra Hawks on Feb. 7, 2026, in a 106-95 win for the Breakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Breakers and Brockington won the NBL Ignite Cup 111-107 vs. the Adelaide 36ers. The Ignite Cup is the NBL\u2019s in-season tournament.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Breakers, a 13-20 record was just short of the NBL Play-In Tournament, meaning no postseason hopes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would love to return,\u201d Brockington\u2019s agent, Darrell Comer, said regarding his status as an NBL free agent for the 2026-27 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 NBA draft will consist of multiple Cyclones, with Joshua Jefferson and Tamin Lipsey as almost guaranteed picks. Milan Momcilovic is a possible late second-round selection, meaning we could see eight Cyclones in the NBA for the 2026-27 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 NBA regular season came to a close at the end of April, and five Cyclones had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-691320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}