After a brief one week absence, former Green Bay forward Alfonzo McKinnie is back in the NBA.

The 6’8” wing was in a limbo for a week after his second 10-day contract with Cleveland expired following the Cavs 131-112 loss to the Warriors back on February 1^st. However, the team brought him back this past Saturday on a 4-year deal worth a reported $7.2 million, though only $600,000 of that is guaranteed according to Cleveland.com.

The 27-year old McKinnie joined the Cavs in October after being waived by Golden State where he appeared in 94 games for the Warriors last season including 22 postseason appearances. He came to Cleveland on a one year deal that did not become fully guaranteed until January 7^th. But instead of allowing his deal to become guaranteed the Cavs cut him and then re-signed him to two different 10-day contracts. After the second deal expired McKinnie was free to join any team but chose to stay with the Cavs, signing his 4-year deal this past Saturday.

In 36 games so far this season he is averaging 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game while shooting 41.6% from the floor.

McKinnie appeared in 42 games in two seasons for Green Bay from 2013-2015 after transferring from Eastern Illinois. He averaged 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game during his Phoenix career that was unfortunately plagued by injuries.

His remarkable journey from Green Bay to Luxembourg to Mexico to the NBA is well documented as he exploded onto the radar after paying $175 to try out for the Chicago Bulls G-League team, making the roster and eventually becoming a G-League All-Star.

From there he played 14 games with the Toronto Raptors in 2017 before making the Warriors roster as a training camp try out in 2018.

Photo: Brian Sevald / NBAE via Getty Images

JayQuan McCloud, Kam Hankerson pass 1,000 career points

A pair of Green Bay seniors achieved a significant milestone during Saturday’s loss at UIC.

JayQuan McCloud and Kam Hankerson became the latest Phoenix players to surpass the 1,000 career point mark with McCloud tallying 15 points and Hankerson scoring 8 points in the Phoenix 71-58 loss to the Flames. McCloud (1,007) and Hankerson (1,004) join Khalil Small (1,335), Sandy Cohen (1,326), Carrington Love (1,289), and Jordan Fouse (1,136) as players that have surpassed the 1,000 career point mark in the Linc Darner era.

McCloud scored 95 points as a freshman at Milwaukee but truly became a scoring threat during his one and a half seasons so far in Green Bay. He is currently enjoying his best collegiate season of his career averaging a career high 16.1 points to go along with 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game and has reached double figures in scoring in 24 of the Phoenix 26 games including three games scoring 30 or more points.

Hankerson was part of Linc Darner’s first full recruiting class at Green Bay in the fall of 2015 along with the departed Trevor Anderson to form the 2016 recruiting class. He only scored 75 points as a lightly used freshman but exploded onto the scene averaging a career best 10.7 points per game as a sophomore. He is having the best shooting season of his career this year knocking down nearly 40% of his three point attempts and 45.9% of his attempts overall while averaging 10.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

He has kicked it up a notch in the month of February averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 33.7 minutes per game in the three games so far this month.

Hankerson is also closing in on passing Cordero Barkley for 10^th all-time on the program’s games played list. He has played in 121 games in a Phoenix uniform so far, four games shy of tying Barkley’s 125 and five away from tying Alec Brown at 126 games played.

Both McCloud and Hankerson will be crucial in determining how far the Phoenix will go this March.

Amari Davis makes history

Freshman guard Amari Davis was named the Horizon League’s Freshman of the Week for the record-tying 8^th time this season, tying the mark set by UIC’s Dikembe Dixson in 2015-16.

Davis has been a star for Green Bay this season averaging 15.8 points per game which is second only to McCloud’s 16.1. He also ranks second in the conference in field goal percentage at a whopping 50.9% despite nearly two thirds of his shot attempts being mid-range jumpers according to BartTorvik.com. Only three players in the country have attempted more mid-range shots than Davis this season.

His 412 point scored already ranks as the 5^th best output by a freshman in the program’s 50-year history and Tony Bennett’s program freshman record of 516 points is within range.