Austin Toros begin to fill up training camp roster

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The Austin Toros announced on Sunday nine players for the team’s training camp roster. The nine players include several players from last season’s team and three players allocated by the San Antonio Spurs after getting cut during Spurs training camp.

As expected, the Spurs allocated Kevin Palmer, who was signed by the club on October 20 and waived the next day. Also allocated to the Toros was Marcus Cousin, who was waived along with Palmer on October 21.

Coach Pop had good things to say about Cousin, telling the media, “He’s a really tough kid who rebounds well, shoots the ball well, we just have enough 5’s.”

“He did a really good job”

The third player allocated by the Spurs was Thomas Gardner. Gardner, like Cousin, was in training camp with San Antonio, but was an early casualty. Gardner was cut from the training camp roster on September 30.

The ability to allocate three player cut from their NBA training camp roster is a new D-League rule that the Spurs are taking advantage of. It’s no surprise, really, as San Antonio is at the forefront of the NBA club/D-League affiliate relationship.

In addition to the allocated players, the Toros brought back several players from last year’s team. Returning to Austin are Lewis Clinch, Squeaky Johnson, Michael Joiner and Cory Underwood.

Alonzo Gee could also return to the team at some point this season if the Spurs cut him from their roster or assign him to Austin. Gee still has one year of D-League eligibility remaining.

The Toros also announced that they are bringing in Casaan Breeden and Andres Sandoval to training camp after the pair impressed at the team’s local tryout.

The rest of the Toros training camp roster will be filled on Monday night when the D-League Draft takes place. Austin holds the 14th pick in the first round of the draft. The Toros will host a draft party at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Austin.

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  • Shawn_b

    “we just have enough 5′s.”
    Are you kidding me POP?

  • andy

    @Shawn_b

    splitter, duncan, and mcdyess are all 5’s at this point in their careers. blair and bonner are our 4’s. i’d say we have enough 5’s. when/if mcdyess retires after the season, maybe cousin can have his backup minutes if he develops in austin. count me among those hoping, considering the flashes he showed in preseason.

    as before, i’m glad the spurs do their due diligence with every avenue. we need every inch we can get from the system.

  • rj

    we need at least one big in the pipeline in case any of our bigs go down. glad to see cousin is still in the system. is tiago for sure tomorrow?

  • Espoon

    I think Gee will end up in the D-League. Once both Bonner and Splitter are healthy, Gee will be inactive or in the D-League. It looks like he and Temple will find it hard to get any min.