Former Michigan State basketball guard joining New Orleans Pelicans for NBA Summer League
The 2025 NBA Draft has come and gone, and players are finding their new homes, learning where they will play for the beginning of their professional career. With the next stages of careers playing out, several players with ties to Michigan State are learning their new landing spots.
One high profile, former Spartan, A.J. Hoggard has found out where he will be playing when the NBA Summer League begins.
The New Orleans Pelicans have signed on Hoggard to join the team for summer league, according to Draft Express' Jon Chepkevich.
A 6-foot-3 guard, Hoggard spent four seasons with Michigan State, averaging 8.6 points and 4.6 assists, before spending one season at Vanderbilt, where he averaged 9.6 points and 4.6 assists with the Commodores. Five seasons in college basketball has shown the playmaking ability Hoggard has, to go along with good positional size for the next level.
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Report: Magic sign 32nd overall pick Noah Penda to 4-year rookie contract
French forward Noah Penda, the 32nd overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, signed his rookie contract with the Orlando Magic on Friday, the team announced. Penda was named the LNB Pro A Best Young Player last season, averaging 10.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals on 44.7% shooting from the field in 30 games. He ranked fourth in the league during the regular season in steals and 13th in rebounding. The 6-foot-7 forward reportedly signed via the second-round pick exception, according to Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. The first two years are guaranteed on the contract, which includes a non-guaranteed third year and a team option for the fourth season. Penda was viewed as one of the top international prospects this year, thanks to his scoring, versatility on the defensive end of the court and size at 242 pounds. He also intrigued the organization with his nearly 7-foot wingspan. The Magic, who ranked second in defensive rating last season, believe Penda can provide coach Jamahl Mosley with yet another perimeter defender who can switch positions and impact games at a high level, with his length, activity and IQ. Penda will suit up for the Magic for at least five games in the NBA Summer League, beginning on July 10 against the Sacramento Kings (7:30 p.m. EDT, NBA TV).
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
No. 12 overall pick Noa Essengue inks rookie contract with the Bulls
French forward Noa Essengue, the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, signed his rookie contract with the Chicago Bulls on Friday, the team announced. Essengue averaged 10.7 points, five rebounds and 1.2 assists on 52.1% shooting from the field in 60 games across all league competitions with ratiopharm Ulm in the German League. He has registered seven 20-point games, including a 22-point, 14-rebound performance on June 1. He will make $5,429,520 next season, according to Spotrac. The 18-year-old was highly touted as a prospect this year because of his size, rebounding and defensive versatility. He looked increasingly comfortable on offense and turned in several noteworthy performances in the second half of the season. Essengue helped ratiopharm Ulm reach the best-of-five championship series against Bayern Munich. He left the team after Game 3 in the finals to travel to the United States and attend the draft from the green room at the Barclays Center. The 18-year-old is expected to suit up with the Bulls for at least five games in the NBA Summer League, beginning on July 11 against the Toronto Raptors (8 p.m. EDT, ESPN).
Dominion Post
5 hours ago
- Dominion Post
Javon Small will take first steps into NBA at Salt Lake City Summer League
MORGANTOWN — The last time Javon Small was on a basketball court that mattered, he ended up criticizing himself for not being more assertive with his offensive game. That was nearly four months ago now during the Big 12 tournament, where his final game for WVU was a 67-60 upset loss against Colorado. 'I've got to be more aggressive throughout the whole game,' Small said that day. 'They had me running around, and then I'm just a natural playmaker, in my opinion, so I just thought I could make the right play. 'I started dishing the ball off, but, yeah, I just got to be more aggressive.' Small will walk into the Jon M. Huntsman Center at 7 p.m. Saturday, another college arena — the University of Utah's — but with more on the line. He's a professional now, one fighting and clawing just to prove he belongs at the NBA level after getting drafted 48th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies last month. His first opportunity comes in the Salt Lake City Summer League, where Small and his summer league teammates will play Oklahoma City. Memphis is also scheduled to play Philadelphia and Utah before the team travels to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where every team will be represented. Fighting for respect, that's a basketball story Small has already lived numerous times over, well before he enrolled at WVU in 2024. A native of South Bend, Ind., where football is king, Small literally grew up with a basketball in his hands or somewhere close by. 'We introduced him to basketball at about 2 or 3, because he had an older brother that played,' Small's mother, Jovanna Wright, told South Bend television station WNDU. 'But when he started sleeping with that basketball, taking that basketball every single place we went, dribbling it wherever we went, I knew that he was serious.' Small's freshman year at Riley High School in South Bend didn't produce a lot of playing time, so Wright moved the family to Indianapolis. She moved him again, this time to Compass Prep in Chandler, Ariz., for his senior season, which fell during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'You've got to do what you've got to do when you've got children, right?' Wright said. 'By any means necessary, and I wanted Javon to be able to experience college life with no debt.' Small's fight to get noticed by the basketball world began in those days, but it was a struggle. Indiana State offered him the opportunity to return close to home. There were other offers from Ball State and Kent State. Virginia Tech was his only offer from a Power Conference School coming out of high school. Small decided East Carolina was his best option, likely seeing an opportunity for playing time, because the Pirates had gone 19-31 in the two seasons before Small arrived on campus. He came off the bench and played just two minutes in his first college game. The rest, as they say, is history. Small went from averaging two points a game as a college freshman to 15.8 per game as a sophomore at East Carolina. He rolled the dice and ended up at Oklahoma State for a season. Small became an instant leader for the Cowboys, but on a team that finished tied for last in the Big 12. OSU head coach Mike Boynton was fired at the end of that season, Small put his name in the transfer portal again, and he wound up with the Mountaineers for a season. There is no wrong way to describe that season in Morgantown. It brought a historic road win against Kansas, where Small and a depleted Mountaineers' roster that had been ravaged by injuries went into Allen FieldHouse and pulled off a 62-61 shocker. Small finished with a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. There was another upset over No. 3 Gonzaga, an overtime win in which Small put himself on the college basketball map with 31 points in 42 minutes. There were just as many shocking losses, too, like the one against last-place Colorado in the Big 12 tournament or a 28-point gut punch against rival Pitt. When you added it all up, Small still put together one of the finest individual seasons ever for a WVU point guard: 18.6 points, 5.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. Small will take his first NBA steps today amongst so many others in the same situation. Armando Bacot played in the national championship game at North Carolina, is the Tar Heels' all-time leading rebounder and a former All-American. He went undrafted in 2024. Ace Baldwin was a former Atlantic 10 Player of the Year at Virginia Commonwealth. Among the Grizzlies' 19-man summer league roster is a host of players who were once stars in college, but are now scratching and clawing for their own shot at the NBA life. Just like Small. It is not an easy path that lies ahead for the 6-foot-1 guard. He will not be coddled like Memphis' 2025 first-round pick, Cedric Coward, who is also on the summer roster. Small will sign a two-way contract, which ties him to both the Grizzlies and the team's G League team, the Memphis Hustle, for one season. He'll attend training camp in September and will likely spend the majority of his first season shifting between the Grizzlies and the Hustle. After that, it becomes an unknown. It's a situation Small has faced before. '(The Grizzlies) are getting a competitor, a hard worker and somebody who is going to bring positive energy every single day. They are just going to get a dog,' Small said. July 5: vs. Oklahoma City, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)July 7: vs. Utah, 9 p.m. (NBA TV) July 8: vs. Philadelphia, 7 p.m. (NBA TV)
