2023-24 NBA G League Expansion Draft
With the Portland Trail Blazers joining the NBA G League with their own affiliate for the 2023-24 season, there was an expansion draft as the first step towards the Portland team filling out its roster. The expansion draft allowed Portland to acquire the returning rights to players throughout the G League, with protection rules in place for current G League teams to use on their existing returning players.
The NBA G League shared returning player rights lists with current G League teams. Teams had until 5:00 PM ET on Wednesday, May 31, with a list of up to twelve protected players for this year’s expansion draft. No G League team could lose more than two returning players through the expansion draft.
On Thursday, June 1, the Portland G League team received the list of unprotected players available for selection in the expansion draft.
The Portland G League team submitted the players it wanted to select in the expansion draft to the NBA G League by 3:00 PM ET on Thursday, June 8.
The new Portland NBA G League team had the right to select up to 14 unprotected Returning Players, and they could not select more than two unprotected Returning Players from a single existing team. Portland will retain the League rights to these selected players for two seasons, beginning with the 2023-24 season.
Below is the list of players selected:
Chudier Bile (Salt Lake City Stars)
Michael Devoe (Ontario Clippers)
Jawun Evans (Cleveland Charge)
Deng Geu (Texas Legends)
Kyle Guy (Cleveland Charge)
Justin Jackson (Long Island Nets)
Matt Mooney (Delaware Blue Coats)
EJ Onu (Santa Cruz Warriors)
Elijah Pemberton (Santa Cruz Warriors)
Quinton Rose (Westchester Knicks)
Aamir Sims (Westchester Knicks)
Jeremiah Tilmon (Raptors 905)
Romeo Weems (Memphis Hustle)
Donovan Williams (Long Island Nets)
This year’s expansion draft was the first since 2018 when the New Orleans Pelicans acquired the rights to own and operate an NBA G League team, which is currently known as the Birmingham Squadron.
Notable players’ rights selected in previous NBA G League expansion drafts include New York Knicks center and 2019 NBA G League Finals MVP Isaiah Hartenstein, Milwaukee Bucks forward Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. and former NBA guards Trey Burke and Jimmer Fredette.