Hailing from Austin, Texas, in the class of 2021, power forward KJ Adams was a top-100 recruit according to 247Sports and was a part of a class that was ranked as the nation’s 11th-best.
Adams enjoyed a stalwart career with the Jayhawks. Adams was a bit-part player in Kansas’ 2022 national title, averaging a tail under five minutes per game; however, he enjoyed 97 starts over his next three seasons, where he tallied 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists, on a strong 58.8% field goal rate.
Over his final three years, Kansas notched a 72-32 record; however, the Jayhawks never made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In Adams’ final collegiate game, a 79-72 first-round loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks, the power forward tore his Achilles tendon, marking a cruel way for any collegiate career to end. However, for Adams, he fought back and was recently awarded a spot on the Golden State Warriors’ Summer League roster.
KJ Adams has signed with the Golden State Warriors for the 2026 NBA Summer League.
— Jayhawk Report (@jayhawks_report) June 30, 2026
Huge congrats to KJ for overcoming his achilles tear in a 15 month long recovery. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/KmIlGZiDIL
Adams’ storied career at Kansas should have never ended the way it did
Adams left KU finishing No. 5 on the all-time Kansas Career Field Goal Percentage list at 58.8%, going 463-787 from the field. Adams also ranks No. 50 all-time in points at Kansas with 1,136, along with 496 rebounds. Adams was also a two-time Big 12 Honorable Mention selection, the league’s 2022-23 Most Improved Player and was nominated to the 2022 Big 12 All-Freshman Team.
Adams' best season came in his junior year, when he notched 12.6 points per outing, to go along with 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists on a strong 60.1% field goal rate, leading the Big 12.
The game score metric is “A measure created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player’s productivity for a single game. The scale is similar to that of points scored (40 is an outstanding performance. 10 is an average performance. etc.).”
According to Hollinger's game score, over Adams’ three years as a starter, he finished with average scores of 9.0, 11 and 9.3. By no means scores that make Adams an All-American candidate, but certainly worthy of a chance at the next stage, the same stage Adams is now heading to.
What are the next steps for Adams?
Now that Adams is with the Warriors, he will participate in their California Classic Summer League held inside the Chase Center in San Francisco and the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, which runs from July 3rd until July 6th. Assuming everything goes to plan, Adams will then move on to the official 2026 NBA Summer League.
With Adams not taking part in an official game since March 2025, in all likelihood, the former four-star will spend the next season as part of a G-League affiliate. A former teammate of Adams, Zeke Mayo recently announced he was joining the Atlanta Hawks’ Summer League roster after spending his first season in the Association with the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers’ G-League affiliate. If Adams impresses, then hopefully the former Kansas star can make the jump to an NBA roster rotation.
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