Second-year guard Justin Robinson, whose initial 10-day contract with the Thunder expired overnight, has inked a second 10-day deal with Oklahoma City, the team announced today in a press release.
Having initially joined Oklahoma City’s roster on April 5, Robinson appeared in all six games the team played over the next 10 days, averaging 3.5 PPG and 1.3 APG on .389/.308/.600 shooting in 12.0 minutes per contest. While those numbers are pretty modest, the Thunder apparently liked what they saw from Robinson enough to keep him around for at least 10 more days.
Before arriving in OKC, Robinson played this season for the Delaware Blue Coats in the G League bubble, recording 15.5 PPG and 5.9 APG on .389/.376/.629 shooting in 13 games (31.1 MPG). The 23-year-old was a full-time starter for a Delaware squad that made it to the NBAGL Finals.
Robinson, who will earn $99,020 on his second 10-day deal with the Thunder, will fill the lone open spot on the team’s roster. So, barring any further roster moves, Oklahoma City will have a full 17-man squad for at least the next 10 days.
Once Robinson’s second 10-day contract expires, OKC will have to either let him walk or sign him for the rest of the season.
As a thunder fan I really like this move
When you’re trying to lose every game and sit all of your starters and create fake injuries to the others, these are the type of players you have to sign to finish out the tank.
Thunder are almost in a bottom 5 spot by record. Also get Houston’s pick if it falls out of top 4.
OKC will be able to swap the pick they get from Miami, currently #16, for the Rockets pick if it’s worse than #4, so they’d go up about 10 spots. Since they’re at #5 the best case scenario for OKC would be to win one of the top-4 picks in the lottery and somehow knock Houston down to #5 instead.
However since the Rockets remaining schedule is very favorable for the purposes of keeping their own pick, they just need to keep losing to improve their chances in the lottery. Only two of their 17 remaining games are against teams with losing records, at Orlando this Sunday and at home against Minnesota the following week.
Rockets are doing what okc is. Tanking on purpose. They’ll soon bench wall for an “injury” or “rest”.
They know they need that 1-4 pick but even if they finish with the worst record it isn’t guaranteed.