After trading longtime franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Portland Trail Blazers are entering a new phase of rebuilding. Armed with draft picks and young players, the Blazers are going to suffer through some growing pains in the coming years. It helps though that they have a new potential franchise player in No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson. When it comes to filling out the rest of the roster, the Blazers made a key decision this week releasing John Butler Jr. from his two-way contract. To fill the recently vacated two-way contract slot, the Blazers signed forward Justin Minaya as per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Justin Minaya had been signed to the Blazers roster prior to this on a training camp contract and his chances of making the opening night roster were rather slim. Now, Minaya will be on the regular season roster but will end up spending most of his time with the newly formed Rip City Remix, the Blazers G League affiliate. He joins Skylar Mays and Ibou Badji as the other two players on a two-way contract.
Minaya got his first NBA opportunity last season with the Blazers when they signed him to a 1o-day contract near the end of the regular season. He ended up appearing in four games for the Blazers averaging 4.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists with splits of 30.4 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent shooting from the three-point line.
Minaya went undrafted in the 2022 NBA Draft and began his professional career in the G League with the Capitanes de Ciudad de Mexico.