Oklahoma City Thunder Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Four 2018 NBA Draftees Remain Unsigned

August 12th, 2018 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

With Thunder second-rounder Devon Hall set to spend the upcoming season playing in Australia, 56 of 60 players selected in the 2018 NBA draft have now made plans – in the NBA or elsewhere – for the 2018/19 campaign.

As our 2018 draft pick signing tracker shows, that leaves four players whose status for 2018/19 has yet to be reported or announced. Here’s what we know – or can deduce – about those four rookies:

Justin Jackson (Magic): According to our roster counts, the Magic have used both of their two-way contract slots and have 16 players on NBA contracts. However, only 14 of those NBA deals are fully guaranteed, meaning there could be a path for Jackson to claim the 15th spot. Still, Isaiah Briscoe looks like he’ll have an opportunity to make the team despite not having a guaranteed salary. Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel expects Jackson, who is coming off a major shoulder injury, to spend the 2018/19 season with the Lakeland Magic, so perhaps he’ll sign a G League contract with an eye toward joining Orlando’s 15-man squad in 2019.
De’Anthony Melton (Rockets): The Rockets only have 10 players on fully guaranteed salaries, meaning there’s plenty of room for Melton to join the mix. It’s possible Houston is waiting to sign Melton in order to keep him trade-eligible — as soon as he signs, he can’t be dealt for one month, and the Rockets may want to keep their options open as they scour the market for a wing player. Assuming Melton remains with the Rockets, they’ll likely lock him up for at least three years using part of the taxpayer mid-level exception, like they did with Isaiah Hartenstein.
Chimezie Metu (Spurs): The Spurs have a lone opening on their projected 15-man roster, with 14 players on guaranteed deals. It’s possible Metu could slot into that spot, but he’s not the only option. Former two-way player Darrun Hilliard is a candidate to be promoted to a standard NBA contract, and 2017 second-rounder Jaron Blossomgame could also be signed. The Spurs are very comfortable stashing draft picks, as they currently retain the NBA rights to 11 players who aren’t playing in the NBA. We’ll see if Metu becomes the 12th or if the Spurs held onto part of their mid-level exception this summer in order to sign him to a long-term deal.
Kevin Hervey (Thunder): Hall’s move overseas looks like it could be good news for Hervey. The Thunder have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, leaving no clear path to OKC’s regular season roster, but the club only has Deonte Burton on a two-way deal. That leaves the Thunder’s other two-way contract slot open, and it would make sense for Hervey to fill it, as four other 2018 draftees in the 54-60 range have inked two-way deals so far this summer.

Devon Hall Will Play In Australia

August 12th, 2018 at 8:50am CST by Arthur Hill

Devon Hall, a second-round pick by the Thunder in this year’s draft, will spend the upcoming season in Australia, writes Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. Cairns Taipans of the Australian National Basketball League has officially announced Hall’s signing.

The 53rd player selected, Hall is a 6’5″ shooting guard out of Virginia who spent four seasons in college. He played five games for the Thunder’s Summer League team, averaging 5.4 points in 15.2 minutes per contest.

There was no room for Hall on the Thunder, who currently have 15 players with guaranteed contracts. The team recently acquired Abdel Nader and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot in trades and signed second-rounder Hamidou Diallo, eliminating any chance Hall may have had to earn a roster spot this season. His choices were to play overseas or for Oklahoma City Blue in the G League.

Hall plans to spend one year in Australia before coming to the NBA, tweets Sam Blum of the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va. “We expect him to be with the Thunder next season,” Hall’s agent, Daniel Curtin, told Blum.

NBA Announces Opening Night Schedule

August 8th, 2018 at 1:34pm CST by Luke Adams

While the NBA won’t announce its full schedule for the 2018/19 regular season until this Friday, the league revealed some marquee matchups today, announcing its schedule for opening night, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, along with some additional nationally-televised opening week games (link via Sam Amick of USA Today).

The opening night of the 2018/19 NBA season will feature the Sixers vs. the Celtics in the early game, followed by the Thunder vs. the Warriors. For our purposes though, the most crucial detail of opening night is the date it will happen — Tuesday, October 16. That means that Monday, October 15 represents an important deadline for a number of contract-related decisions.

Teams will have until 5:00pm central time on October 15 to finalize any rookie scale extensions for 2018. Currently, Devin Booker is the only player to sign a rookie scale extension so far this offseason, leaving 22 players still eligible. Of those players, Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves), Larry Nance (Cavaliers), Justise Winslow (Heat), Bobby Portis (Bulls), Kristaps Porzingis (Knicks), Myles Turner (Pacers), Terry Rozier (Celtics), and Trey Lyles (Nuggets) are among the extension candidates worth keeping an eye on.

October 15 will also be the last day for teams to complete a Designated Veteran Extension, though Kawhi Leonard was the only legit candidate for such a deal and he’s no longer eligible now that the Spurs have traded him. Additionally, October 15 will be the last day for teams to extend a veteran contract with more than one season left on it. Expiring veteran deals can still be extended during the season.

Other deadlines on October 15? It’s the last day for teams to complete sign-and-trade transactions during the current league year. And it’s the final day that an Exhibit 10 contract can be converted into a two-way deal for the coming season.

Finally, October 15 is the deadline for teams to cut their rosters down to 15 players (not counting players on two-way contracts) for the 2018/19 regular season.

Lakers At Warriors To Highlight Christmas Day

August 8th, 2018 at 8:10am CST by clarkcrum

AUGUST 8, 8:10am: The Rockets will host the Thunder to round out the Christmas Day schedule, tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

AUGUST 7, 8:02pm: Some of the more popular games of the 2018/19 NBA schedule will be announced tomorrow at 2:00pm EST. At that time, the NBA will announce the schedule for the opening week of the 2018/19 regular season along with the slate of games for Christmas Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

However, Marc Stein of The New York Times is already reporting matchups for three of the Christmas Day games. The Celtics will play the Sixers, the Knicks will host the Bucks, and the new-look Lakers will travel to Oakland to take on the Warriors. Chris Haynes of ESPN is also reporting that the Jazz will host the Trail Blazers.

This will be the fourth consecutive season that a LeBron James-led team will face off against Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and the Warriors. James’ Cavaliers teams went 1-2 against Golden State over the last three seasons.

Thunder Used Part Of MLE To Sign Diallo

August 7th, 2018 at 9:59am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets and Thunder dipped into their taxpayer mid-level exceptions for rookie deals for Isaiah Hartenstein and Hamidou Diallo, respectively. Both are three-year, minimum-salary contracts, but Hartenstein only has one guaranteed year (link) while Diallo has two (link).

And-Ones: ROY Predictions, Offseason Rankings, NBAGL

August 6th, 2018 at 4:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the best chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, according to an ESPN panel. Doncic will fill up the stat sheet and might wind up with the ball more often than second-year guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Mike Schmitz. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton ranks second on the poll, with Schmitz noting that the Suns big man likely to get more playing time than any other rookie. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Cavaliers point guard Collin Sexton and Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. round out the top five.

We have more from around the league:

Retaining Paul George in free agency and dumping Carmelo Anthony‘s contract while receiving projected sixth man Dennis Schroder in return earned the Thunder the top spot on NBA.com’s David Aldridge’s offseason rankings. The rankings are based upon what teams have done during the offseason. The Lakers ranked No. 2 by virtue of signing LeBron James and handing out one-year contracts to other players, thus allowing them to be a force again in next year’s free agent market. The Nuggets gained the No. 3 spot by locking up Nikola Jokic and making trades that cleared roster spots and eased their luxury-tax situation.
Forwards DJ Hogg (Texas A&M) and Malik Pope (San Diego State) and swingman BJ Johnson (LaSalle) are among the top 10 prospects at the G League Invitational, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype. The invitational takes place Sunday in Chicago and over a dozen of last year’s prospects received training camp invites afterward.
The Warriors’ over-under odds for wins next season is 62.5, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Celtics ranked second overall with a 57.5 over-under win total with the Rockets third at 54.5. The Hawks have the lowest projected win total at 23.5. The odds for each NBA team were passed along by ESPN’s Ben Fawkes.

Nuggets, Thunder Hold Largest Trade Exceptions

August 5th, 2018 at 4:37pm CST by Luke Adams

Within the last month and a half, several of the most sizable traded player exceptions from around the NBA have expired. The Clippers‘ $7MM+ exception from last year’s Chris Paul deal expired in June, a pair of big Raptors TPEs went unused a couple weeks later, and the Trail Blazers saw their $13MM exception from last summer’s Allen Crabbe trade expire late in July.

None of these developments were particularly surprising. Traded player exceptions, even bigger ones, often go unused. That’s especially true for teams like Toronto and Portland, whose team salaries are over the tax line. For those clubs, taking on a salary using a traded player exception would cost exponentially more due to tax penalties.

Still, those bigger trade exceptions can occasionally come in handy and are worth keeping an eye on. For instance, the Cavaliers have a $5.8MM trade exception created in last August’s Kyrie Irving deal that would have expired if it hadn’t been used within the next few weeks. The Cavs are taking advantage of it by using it to finalize the acquisition of Sam Dekker without sending out any salary in return.

That Cleveland traded player exception had been the seventh-most valuable TPE around the NBA. Here are the top five, all of which could be used to acquire a player earning at least $7MM in 2018/19:

Denver Nuggets: $13,764,045 (Expires 7/15/2019)
Denver Nuggets: $12,800,562 (Expires 7/8/2019)
Oklahoma City Thunder: $10,883,189 (Expires 7/25/2019)
Charlotte Hornets: $7,819,725 (Expires 7/6/2019)
Detroit Pistons: $7,000,000 (Expires 1/29/2019)

Check out our tracker for the full list of available traded player exceptions. For more information on exactly how trade exceptions work, be sure to check out our glossary entry on the subject.

Thunder Notes: Luwawu-Cabarrot, Nader, Patterson, Adams

August 4th, 2018 at 8:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot is a world traveler, but he hasn’t spent much time in his new home of Oklahoma City, writes Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman. The second-year forward, who played in today’s NBA Africa game, spent just one day in OKC after being traded from the Sixers in a three-team deal July 25.

“It’s a new start,” he said. “Everything is new. I haven’t been there for more than a day, so I can’t even fully realize that it’s gonna be a new life, a new city, a new coach, a new staff, new players, new friends, new things to do in the city, new restaurants. Everything is gonna be new. I love learning new things when I move somewhere.”

Luwawu-Cabarrot hopes the change of scenery is accompanied by an increase in playing time. He was a first-round pick in 2016, but had limited opportunity to show off his skills in Philadelphia, spending part of his first season in the G League and averaging 16.5 minutes of playing time in 121 NBA games. The Sixers didn’t use him at all in the playoffs.

“I feel like it’s a very good opportunity for me,” he added. “I feel like Philadelphia didn’t want me anymore, so it’s a good thing that they traded me.”

There’s more tonight from Oklahoma City:

Also getting used to a new home is Abdel Nader, whom the Thunder acquired from the Celtics July 23, notes Dan Shalin for The Chicago Tribune. A second-round pick in 2016, Nader played one season in Boston, but was dealt when it became clear there wasn’t a roster spot for him. He is doing rehab work on his right wrist after undergoing surgery in June. “When [the trade] happened, I was a little bummed,” Nader said. “But I flew down instantly to OKC, met with the GM [Sam Presti] and with the coaching staff. Everybody is on the same page, and they welcomed me with open arms, made it seem like they wanted me. It felt good that the organization was putting their trust in me.”
Patrick Patterson is hoping to put up better numbers in his second season with the Thunder, writes Nick Gallo of NBA.com. Even though he played in all 82 games, Patterson was limited at the start of last year because of a summer procedure on his knee.
Steven Adams blasts former Thunder guard Reggie Jackson in his new book and says players were relieved when he was traded to the Pistons in 2015, relays Ashish Mathur of AmicoHoops.

Diallo Relieved To Get A Contract

August 3rd, 2018 at 5:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey doesn’t seem inclined to break up his smallish backcourt duo of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, Dan Feldman of NBC Sports notes. Olshey recently said he plans to keep his core group together, despite the team’s first-round flameout in the Western Conference playoffs last season. It might be wise to deal one of them for an impact forward but either Olshey has great faith in his guards or he’s tested the market and couldn’t find a worthwhile deal, Feldman adds.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

Hamidou Diallo feels a sense of relief after signing a contract with the Thunder but isn’t sure what kind of role he can carve out, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman reports. The second-round rookie shooting guard was acquired in a draft-night deal. “We haven’t even spoken about a role yet,” Diallo told Dawson. “We’re still playing pickup ball and stuff like that, still training. Guys are just coming in, veteran players, and trying to teach us as much as possible as early as possible.” Diallo, who received a three-year, $4MM contract, will compete with newcomers Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Abdel Nader for backup minutes.
The Jazz brought back big man Ekpe Udoh because of his defense and positive attitude, according to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. Udoh was signed by Utah last season because of his reputation as a strong defender and he lived up to that billing, posting an average of 1.2 blocks per game. He also showed a superior ability to guard on the perimeter during switches and pick-and-rolls, Jones continues. Udoh, who will serve as the team’s third center, never complained last season when his role diminished, Jones adds. Udoh had his $3.36MM salary guaranteed last month.
Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas had to settle for a one-year, $2MM contract in free agency but he’s determined to be a major bargain for his new team, as he told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. “This has been tough, but it was only a tough year because I wasn’t healthy. My job is to get as healthy as I possibly can and then show the world what I’m capable of doing,” he said.

Thunder To Hire Beyer; George's Popularity In OKC On The Rise

August 2nd, 2018 at 6:43pm CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder are finalizing an agreement to add Bob Beyer to their coaching staff as an assistant, tweets Royce Young of ESPN.com. Beyer, who has previously served as an assistant in Toronto, Orlando, Golden State, Charlotte, and Detroit, would replace Adrian Griffin on Billy Donovan‘s bench.
While Paul George was already well-liked in Oklahoma City, his popularity in OKC figures to rise to another level after he decided to re-sign with the Thunder two years after Kevin Durant left, writes Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman.