- New Thunder point guard George Hill is looking forward to serving as a veteran presence for his young teammates on a rebuilding squad in Oklahoma City, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman reports. “To be that leader out here is much needed with the young locker room that we have,” Hill said.
The Thunder have signed rookie guard Theo Maledon to his first NBA contract, the team announced today in a press release. Oklahoma City now has a full 20-man roster, at least for the time being.
Maledon, 19, was the 34th overall pick in November, having technically been selected by Philadelphia. The Sixers traded his rights to Oklahoma City as part of the Al Horford/Danny Green swap that was finally completed on Tuesday.
The French point guard spent last season with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, playing in France’s Pro A league as well as the EuroLeague. In 46 total games, Maledon averaged 7.3 PPG, 2.7 APG, and 1.9 RPG in 17.3 minutes per contest.
The details of Maledon’s contract aren’t yet known. The Thunder are still technically operating as an over-the-cap club, with their various trade exceptions pushing them over the cap despite a relatively inexpensive roster. As a result, they’ll be able to use their mid-level exception to give Maledon a contract longer than two years and worth more than just the minimum in year one.
Maledon was one of three international draft picks by the Thunder in 2020. First-rounder Aleksej Pokusevski signed his rookie contract last week, while No. 37 pick Vit Krejci appears likely to remain overseas as he recovers from an ACL injury — he’s still under contract with Zaragoza in Spain.
Assuming Krejci is a draft-and-stash prospect, Maledon figures to be the last 2020 draftee to sign a contract for the coming season.
DECEMBER 9: Brown’s deal with the Thunder is now official, the team announced in a press release.
Oklahoma City is currently carrying 17 players on standard contracts and a pair (Brown and Josh Hall) on two-way deals.
NOVEMBER 22: Former Trail Blazers center Moses Brown will sign a two-way contract with the Thunder, according to Adam Zagoria of Forbes. The deal was confirmed by his agent, Gary Mo Moore.
Brown spent one year with Portland on a two-way deal and appeared in nine NBA games, playing 33 total minutes. He averaged 14.4 points and 7.7 rebounds per game with the Texas Legends in the G League. Brown didn’t rejoin the Blazers for the NBA’s restart in Orlando.
“I think that Moses in the last nine weeks has grown in leaps and bounds,” Moore said. “He’s gotten so much better in all phases of his game and in his life, and I think he’s going to be a tremendously surprise great addition to the league. I think the Oklahoma City Thunder have gotten a real quality player and he’s more ready now than (before).”
DECEMBER 9: After signing him on Monday, the Thunder waived Yurtseven on Tuesday, according to the NBA’s official transactions log.
Oklahoma City now has 18 players on its roster, with deals for Chasson Randle (training camp contract), Moses Brown (two-way contract), and Theo Maledon (standard contract) expected to be completed soon.
DECEMBER 8: The Thunder have filled the open spot on their 20-man training camp roster by officially signing undrafted rookie Omer Yurtseven to a one-year contract, per RealGM’s transactions log.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported shortly after last month’s draft that the Thunder and Yurtseven had reached an agreement on an Exhibit 10 deal. The former Georgetown big man looks like a good bet to join the Thunder’s G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.
Yurtseven, 22, began his college career at North Carolina State before transferring to Georgetown. He was the Hoyas’ starting center in 2019/20, averaging 15.5 PPG, 9.8 RPG, and 1.5 BPG in 26 games (27.3 MPG). He decided to go pro this spring following his junior season.
- Al Horford and rookie Theo Maledon will join the Thunder once they complete coronavirus protocols, Brandon Rahbar of the Daily Thunder tweets. Horford and Maledon were officially acquired from the Sixers on Monday. “Theo, for a young player, he has a lot of experience and has a certain maturity about him,” new head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Al, we’re very fortunate that he’s here and to have a player of his caliber.”
The Thunder have officially signed undrafted rookie Josh Hall to his two-way contract, agent Nathan Conley tells JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link). Hall’s agreement with the club was reported shortly after the draft last month.
Ranked by ESPN as the No. 5 prospect among those who went undrafted, Hall has “considerable potential” as both a shooter and ball-handler, according to Mike Schmitz’s scouting report. A 6’9″ forward, Hall had been on track to play college ball at North Carolina State after a year at Moravian Prep, but opted to go pro and enter the draft instead.
The Thunder opened up a pair of spots on their 20-man training camp roster by completing their Al Horford trade earlier today, so it appears that Hall slid into one of those openings.
The signing increases Oklahoma City’s roster count to 19 players, with reported deals for Theo Maledon, Chasson Randle and Moses Brown (two-way contract) still to come. The club will have to make at least two cuts to finalize those moves.
Nearly three weeks after first agreeing to terms, the Sixers were finally able to complete their six-player trade with the Thunder today, acquiring Danny Green, Terrance Ferguson, and Vincent Poirier in the deal.
According to Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link), one minor aspect of the deal was previously unreported, as the 76ers sent $2MM in cash to Oklahoma City to complete the move. That amount will count toward the $5.617MM limit that Philadelphia can sent out in trades over the course of the 2020/21 league year.
Here’s more out of Philadelphia:
- Tyrese Maxey and Mike Scott received clearance to participate in non-contact drills today and are expected to join the team’s group workouts on Wednesday, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Maxey and Scott had to clear the NBA’s coronavirus protocols after registering positive tests.
- Addressing the James Harden trade rumors connecting the Sixers to the Rockets star, head coach Doc Rivers said he’s making it clear to his players that those rumors aren’t coming from Philadelphia’s side (Twitter link via Pompey). “You know, as long as you don’t hear them from us, you should be very comfortable,” Rivers said. “We like our team, man. I tell you, that team I just watched out there (at practice) is really special.”
- Rivers’ comments were in response to a report that said Harden has indicated to Houston that he’d be open to a trade to Philadelphia. In an Insider-only story, ESPN’s Bobby Marks explores which teams could realistically make a play for Harden, noting that any 76ers offer would almost certainly have to start with Ben Simmons.
The Sixers and Thunder have officially finalized a trade agreement that was reached prior to the draft last month, formally announcing today that Al Horford has been sent to Oklahoma City.
Along with Horford, the Thunder also acquired the draft rights to No. 34 pick Theo Maledon, the draft rights to 2014 second-round pick Vasilije Micic, and the Sixers’ 2025 first-round pick (top-six protected).
The 76ers, meanwhile, add veteran shooting guard Danny Green, fourth-year wing Terrance Ferguson, and French big man Vincent Poirier in the swap.
As cap expert Albert Nahmad (Twitter link) and others have explained, the two teams decided to wait until today to finalize the trade because trade restrictions have now lifted on Green and Poirier, who were moved in separate deals last month and couldn’t have their salaries aggregated in a second trade until December 8.
Oklahoma City could have completed the trade without aggregating Green’s and Poirier’s salaries to match Horford’s $27.5MM cap hit, but it would have required the team to use its recently-created $27.5MM traded player exception. The Thunder will now be able to hang onto that exception – created in the Steven Adams deal – to use later this season or early in the 2021 offseason.
Poirier wasn’t initially reported as being part of the trade, but his inclusion was required for salary-matching purposes, since the Thunder didn’t use their TPE. Philadelphia can slide his $2.62MM salary into the $2.66MM trade exception created in last month’s Josh Richardson deal, allowing the Sixers to generate a new $8.1MM TPE in today’s transaction.
It’s not clear whether the Thunder intend to hang onto Horford for the entire 2020/21 season, since the team’s primary motive for the deal was acquiring the future first-round pick, Maledon, and Micic. It’s possible Oklahoma City will take a similar approach to Horford that it did to Chris Paul a year ago, hoping that he can increase his future trade value with a solid season. For now, his pricey multiyear contract will make him difficult to flip.
As for the Sixers, they saved some short- and long-term money in the deal and added at least one rotation player. Green, who has won titles in each of the last two years, will give the club another solid outside shooter — he has made 40.0% of his career attempts from beyond the arc.
Ferguson, meanwhile, took a step back in 2019/20 but had a promising ’18/19 season at age 20 (6.9 PPG with a .366 3PT%) and should compete for minutes on the wing. It’s unclear whether or not Poirier is part of the club’s plans. He may compete with non-guaranteed players like Ryan Broekhoff and Justin Anderson for the final spot on the regular season roster.
All of the NBA trades agreed upon this offseason have now been officially completed, as our tracker shows.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders said today that the team hopes to add another point guard to its depth chart behind D’Angelo Russell and Ricky Rubio, tweets Jon Krawczysnki of The Athletic.
While Saunders didn’t explicitly name him as the player the Wolves want to bring aboard, restricted free agent Jordan McLaughlin is the most obvious candidate for that role, Krawczynski notes. McLaughlin, who was on a two-way contract with Minnesota last season, is the only RFA who has yet to secure a new deal for 2020/21.
The qualifying offer McLaughlin received from the Wolves last month is for another two-way deal, but he and the team are likely trying to negotiate a standard contract that would give him a spot on Minnesota’s 15-man roster for the regular season.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Frank Jackson‘s two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Thunder has a partial guarantee worth $250K for 2020/21, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports. The second year of Jackson’s new deal is non-guaranteed.
- Several reports leading up to the 2020 draft linked Aleksej Pokusevski to the Thunder, but the Serbian forward was still surprised to be drafted by Oklahoma City at No. 17, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “Before the draft we didn’t have any contacts,” Pokusevski said. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I was shocked that I was chosen at No. 17 and drafted to OKC. I was shocked. I didn’t know that it was going to happen, and I was very happy about it.”
- Jazz forward Joe Ingles is looking forward to playing with center Derrick Favors again, writes Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com. “He’s obviously a guy I feel super comfortable playing with,” Ingles said of Favors, noting that the two veterans played a lot of minutes together during the big man’s previous stint in Utah.
- Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic (wrist) practiced in full this week and looks to be on track to play in the team’s regular season opener, says Tony Jones of The Athletic.
Former Trail Blazers forward Jaylen Hoard had a brief stint on the Thunder‘s training camp roster, but has since been released. While photos tweeted by the Thunder on Sunday showed Hoard participating in camp, the NBA’s official transactions log indicates that the team waived him on Sunday.
Hoard, 21, signed a two-way contract with Portland in July 2019 after going undrafted out of Wake Forest. He spent the entire 2019/20 season with the club, though he didn’t see much action at the NBA level, logging just 103 minutes in 13 games.
The Blazers don’t have their own G League affiliate, so Hoard spent time as a rookie with the Texas Legends. He averaged 16.2 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 1.8 APG in 24 games (27.6 MPG) for Dallas’ NBAGL affiliate.
The Thunder have been turning over the spots at the back of their 20-man roster during the last week, having also released Antonius Cleveland and Melvin Frazier shortly after signing them. The moves are presumably being made with G League rights and/or Exhibit 10 bonuses in mind.
A report from French outlet L’Equipe first indicated last week that Hoard would sign an Exhibit 10 deal with the Thunder. Interestingly, that L’Equipe report also suggested that big man Vincent Poirier will be heading to the Sixers in the still-not-official deal involving Al Horford, Danny Green, and Terrance Ferguson.
Poirier’s inclusion in that deal has been speculated by cap expert Albert Nahmad, among others, since his contract is a perfect fit for salary-matching purposes and would allow the Thunder to keep their recently-created $27.5MM trade exception. The trade will likely be completed this week once the salary aggregation restrictions on Green and Poirier lift.