Cameron McGriff to Sign 10-Day Deal with Portland Trail Blazers

Cameron McGriff got quite the present late Christmas Eve: he’s headed to the NBA.

McGriff is set to sign a 10-day deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

McGriff has appeared in 14 games this season with the Greensboro Swarm, the Charlotte Hornets’ G League affiliate. He’s been impressive in that time, averaging 10.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists a contest. McGriff dropped 26 points in a game earlier this month.

McGriff played at Oklahoma State from 2016-20, appearing in 132 games while making 82 starts. He averaged double-figures as a junior and a senior, dropping 12.3 points a game during that stretch. He scored a career-high 28 points in a Bedlam win during his senior season.

It’s been quite the grind for McGriff to get to this point. He was a three-star recruit in the 2016 class, picking OSU over offers from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Houston and others. He was a Travis Ford recruit, but Ford was fired before McGriff got to campus. He spent one season under Brad Underwood before Underwood bolted to Illinois and Mike Boynton took over for the rest of McGriff’s career. And that’s only the half of it. McGriff had a teammate die, stuck it out through the FBI investigation and a season with only seven scholarship players on OSU’s roster all for the COVID-19 pandemic to cut his senior season short.

McGriff signed with Belgian squad Okapi Aalst out of college where he averaged 13.5 points and five rebounds in 27 games during the 2020-21 season. That was good enough to get him back over the pond this season as he readies for his first NBA opportunity.

Depending on when McGriff’s 10-day starts, here is a look at Portland’s upcoming schedule:

Dec. 27 — vs. Dallas Mavericks
Dec. 29 — vs. Utah Jazz
Dec. 31 — at Los Angeles Lakers
Jan. 3 — vs. Atlanta Hawks
Jan. 5 — vs. Miami Heat
Jan. 7 — vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

There is a good chunk of G League players getting called up with a recent surge in positive COVID cases throughout the league, but this could be a good opportunity for McGriff to prove he can hang with NBA players.