The San Antonio Spurs have added three new players to their training camp roster this week, bringing in former second round pick James Gist, veteran sharpshooter Kirk Penney along with Marcus Cousin, a 6-foot-11 center out of the University of Houston, according to a source close to the situation.

The Spurs currently have 11 players with guaranteed contracts already on the roster along with their three NBA Development League call-ups from last season -- Garrett Temple, Alonzo Gee and Curtis Jerrells -- also attending camp on non-guaranteed contracts.  Suffice to say camp will feature some interesting battles as there are currently slated to be six players fighting for a maximum of four open roster spots - though the Spurs are only mandated by the NBA to sign two of the six players.

Gist, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Maryland, was the 57th overall pick for the Spurs during the 2008 NBA Draft.  Since being drafted, Gist has played for the Spurs in the past three Vegas Summer League, but never signed a training camp contract with them which allowed the Spurs to keep his rights - until now.  Once Gist is put on the training camp roster, the Spurs will lose his rights whenever he's released, even if it's prior to the regular season.

The 23-year-old Gist has spent his first two professional seasons playing in Europe, first in Italy with Angelico Biella where he'd average 13 points and six boards 34 games during his rookie season and then with Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia last season.  Playing in the Russian Superleague, Gist averaged 11.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and led the league in blocks before returning to the USA this offseason to do his third tour of duty with the Spurs' Summer League team.

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The Sacramento Kings already have 12 players with guaranteed contracts going into next week's training camp, but that hasn't stopped them from seemingly trying to find out just how many players they're able to wrangle up to compete for - at most - the last three available spots on the roster.

Having already secured the services of Darnell Jackson, Donald Sloan, Joe Crawford, Marcus Landry, Luther Head and J.R. Giddens, I've learned that Kings' Summer Leaguer Connor Atchley will also be in attendance for the Kings training camp when it begins next Tuesday.

Atchley, a 6-foot-10 stretch four, had a rather underwhelming performance for the Kings in Vegas by averaging just 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 38 percent from the field in just over 10 minutes per game.  Before heading to Vegas, however, he played for the New Jersey Nets in the Orlando Pro Summer League where he averaged a bit more impressive 7.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.2 minutes of playing time.

The 25-year-old Atchley looked to be well on his way to being drafted after his junior season at Texas after averaging 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and leading the Big 12 in blocks while shooting better than 41 percent from three-point territory, but had a down senior year and thus is still struggling to get his first taste of NBA action.

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Trey Johnson during his call-up to the Cleveland Cavaliers

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The Los Angeles Lakers have signed former NBA Development League guards Trey Johnson and Anthony Roberson for their training camp roster which opens next week according to multiple sources.  The Lakers also signed center Russell Hicks to a training camp contract earlier this month.

The Lakers have 14 guaranteed salaries going into season already and thus it will be difficult for any of these players to actually make the regular season roster but, with a 15-player maximum, there is at least a small window of opportunity.

Johnson, a 6-foot-5 combo guard, has been a bit of a basketball nomad since being one of the NCAA's leading scorers during his time at Jackson State.  Since playing for the Miami Heat during the 2007 Summer League, Johnson's spent time in training camp with the New Orleans Hornets, earned D-League call-ups with the Cleveland Cavaliers via the Bakersfield Jam and spent time overseas in Serbia, France and Italy between Summer League stops with the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and D-League Select team.

For some Trey Johnson in-game highlights, I suggest you check out this post from his first game back in the D-League last season.

Roberson, whose signing was first reported by HoopsHype's Jorge Sierra, has appeared in 65 NBA games split between the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls.  A 6-foot-2 point guard, Roberson was in camp with both the Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers last season before eventually playing for Strasbourg IG in France.  While in France, Roberson averaged 18.5 points and hit 41 percent (74-of-181) of his attempts from three-point territory.

The Portland Trail Blazers have signed former NBA Development League players Raymond Sykes and Dwayne Mitchell as well as Dwight Lewis, a rookie out of Southern Cal, for their training camp roster which opens next week.  Joe Freeman, from the Oregonian, also reports that the Blazers have signed Oregon State guard Seth Tarver.

Though the Blazers already have 16 players under contract going into the season, it makes sense that they'd like to be familiar with a few of the younger players on the free agent market just in case the injury big happens to bite again - as it did last year numerous times.

The Development League's new allocation system allows for each D-League team to acquire the rights to 3 players cut from their affiliate's training camp. With the Blazers bringing these guys into camp, assuming that they are cut and interested in playing in the D-League, they will be automatically be assigned to the Idaho Stampede instead of going through the draft/waiver process and potentially ending up on another D-League team.

As far as players invited, it's an eclectic mix and could include one more big man before all is said and done from what I've been able to gather.

Sykes, a 6-foot-9 power forward out of Clemson, played for the D-League's Sioux Falls Skyforce last season where he averaged 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while as the team's primary backup at both the power forward and center spots behind future NBA call-ups Alexander Johnson and Greg Stiemsma.

The 24-year-old Sykes is primarily known as a finisher (see number four here as well as a decent array of Clemson highlights on youtube), an energy guy and a shot blocker, though his defense occasionally leaves a bit to be desired when he looks to help weakside.

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I wrote last week that former D-League All-Star Pops Mensah-Bonsu would soon be making his return to the NBA and, according to Aol FanHouse's Sam Amick, Mensah-Bonsu will be going to training camp with the New Orleans Hornets along with former Fort Wayne Mad Ant (and lottery pick of the Milwaukee Bucks) Joe Alexander.

Amick notes that Dell Demps, former Austin Toros General Manager, was more familiar with Mensah-Bonsu than most:

A key new member of the Hornets, however, saw what Mensah-Bonsu could do before and is hoping he does it again. New Orleans general manager Dell Demps was hired in July after spending five years in various roles with San Antonio, where one of his titles was general manager of the Spurs' NBA D-League team, the Austin Toros.

Would you be interested in a fun story about this? A forum that linked to my original report somehow deduced that Mensah-Bonsu (I love typing that) was signing with the Hornets last week Tuesday.  Good job, TigerinATL.

The Hornets roster now stands at sixteen with the earlier additions of Mustafa Shakur, D.J. Strawberry and Darryl Watkins.

Garret Siler, perennial Summer League standout, will be attending the Phoenix Suns training camp. The 6-foot-11, near 300-pound center played with the New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat in Summer League this July after after averaging 14.1 points and 9.3 rebounds with the Shangai Sharks in China's CBA.

Siler will be the sixteenth player on the Suns roster when they open training camp next week.  The second-year pro will join Matt Janning, Dwayne Jones and Zabian Dowdell as players without guaranteed contracts going into this season.  Basically, if Siler is to earn a spot on the Suns roster, he'll do so at the expense of Jones - a player the Phoenix brass has raved about sign re-signing him earlier in the summer.

Most recently, I wrote about Siler when breaking down the Atlanta Hawks' big men options:

Siler is probably the most obvious player to include on this list since Cunningham suggested there is "some interest" in the 6-foot-11, 300-plus pound big man out of Augusta State.   Though Cunningham suggested that "he's got a lot to prove after a bad showing at Summer League," I'd like to counter that THE DUDE MADE 75% OF HIS SHOT ATTEMPTS AND PULLED DOWN 3.8 BOARDS IN JUST 14 MINUTES OF ACTION.  I've been driving the Siler bandwagon for awhile, sure, but the kid deserves an opportunity.  He has great size, soft hands, scores as efficiently as anyone, runs the court very well for a guy his size and seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to get an opportunity.

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The New Orleans Hornets have signed former NBA Development League players D.J. Strawberry and Darryl Watkins for training camp according to a press release from the team.  This signing, along with the recent invite of Mustafa Shakur, puts the Hornets training camp roster currently at fourteen players.

Strawberry was the 59th pick in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns after being to the ACC All-Defensive team at Maryland, but he lasted just one season - 33 games played - in the NBA.  Since then, he's played in Italy and the D-League while putting up middling numbers.

Strawberry has primarily been known to be a defensive presence, but he showcased a few new skills in the D-League this past season which leads me to believe that the NBA could be in his future again.  He didn't light the world on fire this past season after joining the Bighorns in January, but he did look alright as a point guard - something that I didn't originally expect him to showcase - and averaged 5.5 assists as the backup off the bench.  He also put up the best field goal percentage of his career, a scorching 52%, but the 34% three-point percentage shows that his range still isn't really there - he's just better at getting to the bucket.

This summer, Strawberry played for the Los Angeles Lakers in Vegas, averaging 13 points in just over 26 minutes of action - though if he'd been able to hit a few more of his jump shots (44% FG, 14% 3-pt) his scoring average could have been significantly higher.

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The Milwaukee Bucks have signed shooting guard Billy Rush for training camp according to agent Mike Naiditch on Twitter.  Rush, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard out of NAIA Robert Morris, had a pre-draft workout with the Bucks on June 22 but ultimately went undrafted.

Rush averaged 15.8 points and 7.8 rebounds as a senior at Robert Morris, not overly impressive numbers for a player playing against NAIA competition, but the fact that he made 83 of his 207 three-point attempts (40.1%) is definitely an NBA-translatable skill.  Rush also has good size for a shooting guard in the NBA and was training this summer with the world-renowned Tim Grover, two things that will definitely work in his favor for the upcoming season.

While Rush signing with an NBA team right out of an NAIA college may seem like like a bit of a stretch, Robert Morris has recently produced another NBA player that was overlooked in the draft - Utah Jazz wing Othyus Jeffers.

The Bucks will also have Notre Dame point guard Tory Jackson on the roster when training camp opens September 28.