The Thunder have waived Daniel Theis, the team announced in a press release.
Oklahoma City acquired Theis and a 2031 second-round pick in a trade with New Orleans on Wednesday. The pick will be either the Pelicans’ or Magic’s, whichever is least favorable.
It was a salary-dump move for the Pelicans, and obviously Theis wasn’t in the Thunder’s plans either. The eight-year veteran appeared in 38 games for New Orleans in 2024/25, averaging 4.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 16.3 minutes per contest, with a shooting slash line of .473/.243/.838.
At 6’8″, Theis is undersized for a center, which has been his primary position in the NBA. Still, the 32-year-old German could provide some depth in the middle for a team seeking a reserve big man.
Theis was on a minimum-salary contract, so the Thunder will carry a dead-money cap hit of about $2.1MM if he passes through waivers. Assuming he goes unclaimed, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in a couple days and will be able to sign with any team except New Orleans.
Oklahoma City now has 14 players on standard contracts. Rookie center Branden Carlson has signed a pair of 10-day deals with the Thunder and can only be re-signed if he’s given a rest-of-season standard contract or is brought back on a two-way deal, the latter of which would require OKC to release a player.
annd another guy GSW will likely get to fill out their roster after the Jimmy trade, along with Reggie Jackson.
There goes the insurance
Warriors decide that Vooch was too expensive to make a trade for. Ok.
They must be confident in the buyout market? Can this guy play eight minutes a night in the playoffs? Maybe so.
Guaranteed minutes in Philly. Depends on what he’s looking for.
He was on the Knicks radar so might be a good fit there since they did not make any trades for another Big Man.
Celtics probably are gonna call. Theis was already in their system for a while and they need another big to get Al and Porzingis some down time.
But I never speculate with Brad, he is playing chess, the rest of the NBA are still getting the checkers out of the box. Brad’s big advantage is his player evaluations.
Kornet and Queeta have both been playing more than fine.