It took less than a week, but Cam Christie is back where he started.
The former Minnesota Golden Gopher — waived by the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday amid a training camp roster crunch — cleared waivers and was brought back by LA on a two-way contract, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. The 21-year-old shooting guard will enter his third NBA season in familiar surroundings, just via a slightly different contractual path than he anticipated.
The brief separation came down to timing and money. Christie's previous minimum-salary deal was on the verge of becoming guaranteed when the Clippers cut him loose, trimming their roster to the standard 15-man limit. Rather than commit the guaranteed dollars, the front office made a calculated move — waive Christie, let him clear, and bring him back on a two-way slot. It's a common enough roster-management maneuver around the league, but that doesn't make it any less nerve-wracking for the player living through it.
Christie, a second-round pick by the Clippers out of Minnesota, has quietly developed into a reliable rotation piece since entering the league. The two-way designation limits him to 50 NBA games during the regular season, with the remainder of his time potentially split with the organization's G League affiliate — but it keeps him in the fold of a Clippers squad still built around Kawhi Leonard and a win-now timeline.
For Gophers fans watching Christie navigate the volatile edges of an NBA roster, the resolution is a relief. He's one of the more polished offensive players to come out of Minnesota in recent years, and the Clippers clearly valued retaining him enough to maneuver through the roster math to make it happen.
Christie is the only active Minnesota alum currently on an NBA roster who generated news this week, though the Gophers do have representation scattered around the league. Jamison Battle is with the Toronto Raptors, Amir Coffey landed with the Phoenix Suns, and Liam Robbins is in Milwaukee with the Bucks. None of those three had notable developments during the October 11–17 window.
The Christie situation is a useful reminder of how tenuous roster life can be even for players who've already established themselves in the league. The Clippers never really let him go — they just needed to find a different way to keep him. For a 21-year-old heading into Year 3, that kind of organizational confidence, however procedurally complicated, is a meaningful signal.
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