NBA Summer League rosters are being finalized and announced this week. These squads feature a mix of top-flight draft prospects like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer, along with scrappy underdogs fighting and clawing for the limited remaining NBA roster spots.
Multiple former Utah State basketball stars are in the former camp. The Aggies saw five players exhaust their eligibility at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, but none were selected in the NBA Draft. The options for professional basketball, if these players choose to pursue that career, lie in taking the long way around — through summer league, G League and maybe a two-way contract — or going international.
We’ve already seen a mix of both options.
At least four former Aggie standouts have signed professional contracts. Three will be participating in the NBA Summer League, with another signing a contract to play in Europe. There’s also an ongoing lawsuit involving two former USU players seeking an additional season of eligibility.
Drake Allen
Exhibit 10 Contract with the Detroit Pistons
Drake Allen is the most recent Aggie to join the pro ranks. He signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Detroit Pistons, which will put the point guard on the organization’s summer league team and give them first rights to sign Allen to their G League team should he not make the main roster after training camp. This was the path Darius Brown took, and his performance in the G League eventually landed him a brief two-way contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Garry Clark
Pro Contract with Uusikaupunki Korihait
On June 12, Uusikaupunki Korihait of the Finnish Basketball League announced the signing of the former Aggie forward. According to a Google translation of the press release, which is written in Finnish, Korihait’s head coach Pieti Poikola said the following about Clark:
“He is a relatively versatile big player. Above all, what I liked about Garry is that he does the small details well. He has played in diverse roles at good schools and has always adapted to them well.”
Poikola also praised Clark’s screening ability, finishing around the basket, ability to create space for others, and overall unselfish play.
MJ Collins and Kolby King
Suing the NCAA for additional eligibility
Collins and King would disagree with the earlier paragraph that lumps them in with the players who have exhausted their eligibility. The two former Aggie guards are currently plaintiffs in a lawsuit, along with 13 other named athletes, against the NCAA. The lawsuit seeks to grant an additional year of eligibility for the plaintiffs, citing the recent changes to eligibility rules.
The new eligibility rules do away with all redshirts and waivers (save for a few rigid exceptions) in favor of a blanket five years for all athletes. Had Collins and King played under these rules, each would have had an additional year of eligibility. But the NCAA specified that it would not retroactively apply the new rules to athletes whose eligibility clock ended at the conclusion of the 2025-26 academic year (athletes with remaining eligibility can be impacted, though none will have seasons taken away from them, only added if possible).
This lawsuit aside, Collins had been working out with NBA teams ahead of the league’s draft. Reports indicated he’d worked out with the Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors. Collins went undrafted and has not signed any contracts to play in the NBA Summer League or with any international pro teams.
Regardless, neither Collins nor King plans to play in an Aggie jersey again, as both have made clear they would play a fifth season, if granted to them, at Cincinnati under former USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun.
Ian Martinez
Summer League Roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers
Ian Martinez is more than a year removed from the end of his successful Aggie career. He went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft and signed a contract to play with Unger Steel Gunners Oberwart of the Austrian Bundesliga. He averaged just shy of 20 points across 27 appearances for his team, which lost in the league’s championship series to Kapfenberg.
After a successful season overseas, Martinez is now looking to break through in the NBA via the summer league. It’s a path the Costa Rican guard didn’t attempt last summer, but he will now spend July wearing the same jersey colors as fellow former Aggies Darius Brown II and Sam Merrill. Both of these predecessors saw notable success and earned NBA contracts based partly on elite summer league performances.
Isaac Johnson
Summer League Roster of the Philadelphia 76ers
After transferring away from Utah State in the 2025 offseason, Isaac Johnson was able to maximize his professional prospects thanks to a great season at Hawaii. The 7-foot center averaged 14.1 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Warriors, leading the way to a Big West Conference Tournament championship and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Other Aggies in the Pros
There are approximately 21 former Utah State players currently in professional basketball leagues across the globe. The “approximately” is a necessary qualifier given that some players are between contracts and may not be with the same team they spent the 2025-26 season with. Of those 21 players, 15 are players who spent their final collegiate season with Utah State, and the other six spent at least one season in Logan but transferred elsewhere to conclude their college careers.
Most notable among the former Aggies currently in the professional ranks are Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta. Both had career seasons in the NBA and were starters for playoff teams in the Eastern Conference. Merrill, playing for the Cavaliers, averaged 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 46.1% shooting overall and 42.1% shooting on 3-pointers. Queta started 75 games for the Boston Celtics and averaged 10.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 blocks.
Darius Brown II was starting to break through in the NBA. He was on a two-way contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, working his way up from a summer league appearance and spending two seasons with the Cleveland Charge. He even made his NBA debut on Feb. 24, playing four minutes in a Cavaliers’ win over the New York Knicks. However, Cleveland waived Brown on March 3, and he has not signed anywhere else yet.
On the international scene, Justin Bean helped Alba Berlin to a regular-season first-place finish and a victory in the German BBL Finals. Bean was named Finals MVP, which included scoring 18 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in his team’s miraculous rally from down 20 points in the decisive game five.
The following are the other former Aggies who are playing professional basketball, listed with the team they spent the 2025-26 season with.
- Taylor Funk — San Diego Clippers (G League)
- Dexter Akanno — Caen Basket Calvados (French ProB)
- Dan Akin — Kolossos BC (Greek Basketball League)
- Diogo Brito — Monbus Obradoiro (Spain LEB Gold)
- Kris Clark — Guba (Azerbaijani Basketball League)
- RJ Eytle-Rock — EJ Sligo All-Stars (Irish Men’s Super League)
- Aubin Gateretse — Hubo Limburg United (Belgium BNXT League)
- Brandon Horvath — Nitra Blue Wings (Slovakian Tipos SBL)
- Ian Martinez — Unger Steel Gunners Oberwart (Austrian Basketball Super League)
- Chris Smith — Hiroshima Dragonflies (Japanese B1 League)
- Shane Rector — Zonkeys de Tijuana (Mexican CIBACOPA)
- *Sean Bairstow — Auckland Tuatara (New Zealand NBL)
- *Rylan Jones — Zeofees Southland Sharks (New Zealand NBL)
- *John Knight III — Rio Grande Valley Vipers (G League)
- *Max Shulga — Boston Celtics (NBA)
- *Josh Uduje — Boulazac Basket Dordogne (French Jeep Elite)
- *Great Osobor — Science City Jena (German Bundesliga)
