Trail Blazers' Training Camp Roster Beginning to Take Shape

Portland has brought back Kevin Knox II and added some players on camp invites.

With three weeks before media day kicks off on Oct. 2, the Trail Blazers’ training-camp roster has started to take shape.

Anything bigger than the recent moves on the fringes of the roster continues to be on hold until Damian Lillard’s status is figured out, and there are no updates there to speak of.

This weekend’s minor moves were bringing back Kevin Knox II, who came over at the deadline from Detroit and played during the tanking portion of last season, and signing former Iowa State center George Conditt to an Exhibit 10 deal. These come on the heels of last month’s similar back-end moves of signing center Moses Brown to a partially guaranteed deal and guard Ashton Hagans on an Exhibit 10.

These signings aren’t headline-grabbers, but they do put into focus what things might look like next month when training camp opens.

The signings of Knox and Brown get the Blazers to 14 players under contract, which is the minimum they’re required to have by opening night. Their roster is now legal to begin the season, if nothing else.

Hagans and Conditt join Malachi Smith and Antoine Davis on Exhibit 10 deals. For those who don’t know, an Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed training camp deal that allows the team to retain the player’s G League rights if they’re waived. Portland hasn’t had much use for Exhibit 10 deals in years past, since they were one of the last remaining holdouts without their own G League team. That is changing this fall with the debut of the Rip City Remix, which gives them a whole extra roster to fill out. Hagans, Conditt, Smith and Davis will all have an inside track on making the Remix roster.

It’s also possible that one of them could earn the Blazers’ open two-way spot. The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement that went into effect on July 1 added a third two-way contract — a hybrid NBA/G League deal first introduced in 2017. Portland already re-signed both of last year’s two-way players, John Butler Jr. and Ibou Badji, which leaves one spot remaining, and the expectation is that it will be filled before the end of camp.

Last year, center Olivier Sarr earned a two-way contract with the Blazers after joining on a camp deal (he was waived after suffering a wrist injury during preseason), so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that one of the four Exhibit 10 players impresses in camp and locks up that spot.

As things stand right now, Brown in particular has a real chance at not only making the Blazers’ opening-night roster but getting real minutes. As it stands, Portland has no center depth behind Jusuf Nurkic other than Badji, who has never played in an NBA game.

Knox was well-liked by the Blazers’ front-office and coaching staffs after coming over at the deadline; they declined his $3 million team option before the start of free agency to create roster flexibility, but left the door open for him to come back, and that’s what’s happened.

Of course, there’s still a chance both could be waived before their guarantee dates if general manager Joe Cronin needs to open up roster spots to take back multiple players in a Lillard trade. But there’s no telling when that will happen or what it will look like — as of now, there’s been no indication that anything is imminent. If things remain status quo going into the beginning of the regular season, the additions of Brown and Knox at least give the Blazers enough players under contract to meet league requirements.