A former five-star Tennessee basketball one-and-done star is getting another chance to crack an NBA roster.
Kennedy Chandler is rostered on the Houston Rockets’ 2025 Summer League team for this preseason. He’ll compete in a minimum of four games from July 11-17 and an additional match following that stretch. This includes a matchup with the Pistons on July 13, which will pit him against former Vols teammate Zakai Zeigler.
Chandler will also team up on the Rockets with a sort of former Vol. Chris Ledlum, who spent a small portion of the off-season ahead of his final year with Tennessee before transferring to St. John’s, is also on the team.
Roster check for Summer League Mini-Camp!
Rockets basketball starts this week from Vegas 🎰 pic.twitter.com/YMdfg8ygHJ
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) July 7, 2025
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Chandler has bounced around the G-League in recent years as he tries to find his footing. The 5-foot-11 point guard played the most recent season with the Raptors 905. He posted 10.8 points per game on 45.5% shooting from the field and 33.7% on 3-pointers in 34 appearances. He also chipped in 4.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds per match.
The year prior, Chandler played for the Long Island Nets. There, he averaged 14.4 points per outing in 33 games on 48.1% shooting from the field and 34.8% on threes. He also managed five assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.
In his 2022-23 rookie season, he split time between the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA and Hustle of the G-League. With the Grizzlies, he averaged 2.2 points on 42.2% shooting from the field in 36 appearances. While averaging just 7.8 minutes on the floor per game, he also posted 1.6 assists and 1.1 rebounds.
In the G-League that year, he played in seven games. During that time, he notched 16.1 points per game to go with 5.7 assists and 2.4 rebounds.
Chandler joined Tennessee as a five-star recruit. He was ranked as the No. 10 recruit in the country in the 2021 class, according to Rivals. He chose the Vols over Duke, Kentucky, Memphis and North Carolina.
In his lone season in Knoxville, Chandler started in all 34 of his appearances. He averaged 13.9 points per game on 46.4% shooting from the field and 38.3% on threes to go with 4.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. He emerged toward the end of the season as one of the better point guards in the country, winning SEC Tournament MVP while helping bring the trophy back to Rocky Top.
Chandler was an All-SEC Second-Team and All-SEC Freshman Team member for the year. He was a Collegeinsider.com Freshman All-American, as well.
