The Trail Blazers plan to sign free agent guard John Tonje to a two-way contract, agents George Roussakis and Mark Bartelstein tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Tonje spent most of 2025/26 — his rookie season — on a two-way contract with Utah before he was traded to Boston in February. The Celtics decided not to give him a qualifying offer last month, making the 25-year-old an unrestricted free agent.
The 53rd overall pick of the 2025 draft, Tonje appeared in six NBA games with the Celtics, averaging 2.5 points in 7.0 minutes per contest. He didn’t make an appearance for the Jazz.
While his NBA playing time was limited, Tonje was a regular contributor at the G League level with the Salt Lake City Stars and Maine Celtics. In 43 total outings (32 with Salt Lake City and 11 with Maine), the 6’4″ shooting guard averaged 18.0 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 1.6 APG and 0.9 SPG, with a shooting line of .460/.371/.899.
A Nebraska native who played for Colorado State, Missouri and Wisconsin in college, Tonje recently played for Boston’s Summer League team in Las Vegas, averaging 14.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 1.2 SPG on .510/.452/.500 shooting in five games (24.2 MPG).
As our tracker shows, Portland currently has a two-way opening, so no corresponding move will be required to add Tonje. The Blazers’ other two-way players are Chris Youngblood and Jayson Kent.
Two-way contracts are non-guaranteed and don’t count against the salary cap. Tonje will earn $678,882 in 2026/27, half of the rookie minimum, and will be eligible to appear in up to 50 of Portland’s 82 regular season games.
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