Former Auburn forward Chuma Okeke has returned to the NBA, and this time he won’t be going back to the NBA Gatorade League this season. Instead, he’s headed to the playoffs.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed Okeke to a rest-of-the-season contract, the NBA team announced. With the best record in the NBA East at 61-15, the Cavaliers already had secured their spot in the NBA playoffs.

Cleveland filled an open spot on its 15-player roster by signing Okeke from the Westchester Knicks, the NBA G League team to which he returned after completing a second 10-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.

In his first 10-day stint with the Sixers in February, Okeke played 2:11 in one game. But the second time around last month, Okeke played in six games with three starts after being signed by Philadelphia during an injury crisis. In those six games, he averaged 8.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 28.2 minutes per game.

In 45 games during three stints with Westchester this season, Okeke has averaged 16.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.4 blocked shots per game.

After playing for the Orlando Magic last season, Okeke signed with New York as an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 2, but he was waived by the Knicks on Oct. 19 before the NBA’s 2024-25 season tipped off.

The Cavaliers’ contract with Okeke includes a team option for next season. If Okeke signed for the veteran’s minimum, he’ll be paid $12,860 per day for the remainder of the regular season, which ends on April 13.

The Cavaliers play the Sacramento Kings at 5 p.m. CDT Sunday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland in their next game.

In two seasons at Auburn, Okeke averaged 9.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. In his final game for the Tigers, Okeke had 20 points and 11 rebounds in Auburn’s 97-80 victory over North Carolina when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during an NCAA tournament Round of 16 game on March 29, 2019.

The injury caused Okeke to miss the entire 2019-20 NBA season after being drafted at No. 16 by the Magic.

In the fifth game of his NBA career, Okeke sustained a bone bruise on his left knee and missed 16 games. Then he missed the final 10 games of the 2020-21 season because of a sprained ankle as he played 45 games in that campaign.

After playing in 70 of Orlando’s 82 games in the 2021-22 season, Okeke got into only 27 in the 2022-23 campaign. In December 2022, Okeke underwent a chondroplasty, a surgical procedure to repair cartilage in a joint, on his left knee.

Last season, Okeke averaged 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 9.5 minutes in 47 games for Orlando.

In 196 NBA regular-season games across five seasons, Okeke has averaged 6.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.