The Thunder have agreed to a deal with 23-year-old international center Yannis Morin, Erik Horne of the Oklahoman writes, confirming a report previously relayed by Sportando.
The French big man played with Oklahoma City’s summer league team and will join the franchise for training camp on a non-guaranteed deal. In five games in the Orlando league, he averaged 2.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for OKC.
Morin has previously played in France’s Pro A and Pro B leagues.
JULY 21st, 2:40pm: The signing is official, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe tweets.
JULY 14th, 11:31am: The Thunder and Nick Collison have reached an agreement on a one-year contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, the one-year deal will “end” Collison’s long NBA career with the franchise, so it sounds like he’ll retire at the end of the 2017/18 season.
Collison, who will turn 37 in October, has appeared in 895 total regular season games for Seattle and Oklahoma City, but has an extremely limited role at this stage of his career. In 2016/17, he played just 128 total minutes in 20 games for the Thunder, averaging 1.7 PPG and 1.6 RPG. In what figures to be his final season, he’ll serve more as a veteran mentor on the bench than as a key on-court contributor for the club.
While terms of the deal weren’t reported, the Thunder have used their taxpayer mid-level exception, and won’t use their bi-annual exception to avoid becoming hard-capped. So Collison will be in line for a one-year, minimum salary contract.
That deal will pay Collison about $2.329MM, but will only count for $1.471MM for OKC’s team salary and tax purposes. Our story on this year’s minimum salaries explains the details on those numbers.
The arrival of Paul George has signaled a renewed intrigue around the Thunder organization. Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Russell Westbrook once again has a superstar partner as Oklahoma City chases an NBA title. The vacancy left by Kevin Durant has been filled temporarily but George teased being a permanent staple for the club.
As Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman writes, George spoke at his introductory presser about the possibility of remaining with the Thunder beyond the 2017/18 campaign if his first season goes smoothly.
“I could come here and love it, as I have been loving it here,” George said. “Both myself and Russell, if we love where we’re at and we feel we can do something special here, I’m open to it.”
George and his new teammate Westbrook could both hit free agency next season. The California native George is expected to pursue joining the Lakers at some point — despite claiming his interest is overstated — and the former UCLA product Westbrook could follow him there. However, George teasing another dynamic duo in Oklahoma City less than two years after Durant left the city for greener pastures may be a cruel tease of what may never occur.
Below are additional notes surrounding the Thunder:
JULY 14: The Thunder have officially re-signed Robinson, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 5: The Thunder and Andre Roberson have agreed on a three-year, $30MM deal, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). The scribe adds that Roberson preferred the three-year deal over a four-year contract.
The move will put the Thunder at roughly $125.1MM in team salary, ESPN’s Bobby Marks adds (ESPN Now link). Oklahoma City sits at $5.8MM over the luxury tax line, which will give the franchise a projected tax bill of approximately $8.9MM. The organization will have the entire 2017/18 to shed salary if it wants to avoid paying the tax.
Roberson has developed into one of the league’s better perimeter defenders during his four years with OKC. He was the best defender among all shooting guards last season, according to ESPN’s Real Defensive Plus/Minus, and he added the fifth-most value on the defensive end among all non-bigs, according to NBAMath.com.
Of course, as impressive as Roberson was on defense, he had virtually the opposite impact on the other end of the court, making just 24.5% of his three-pointers and 42.3% of his free throws in 2016/17. He also missed 18 of 21 free throws in the postseason. At age 25, Roberson still has room to develop, but it will be a challenge for the Thunder to turn him into a positive asset on the offensive side of the ball.
In addition to bringing back Roberson, the Thunder have also agreed to sign Patrick Patterson and will send Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to Indiana in exchange for Paul George after the July moratorium ends.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
After several weeks of trade rumors that linked him to a wide variety of teams, Paul George was ultimately sent to a suitor that had barely been mentioned, with the Pacers trading him to the Oklahoma City. Speaking to Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, George discussed his new team and dismissed the idea that he’s a lock to eventually become a Laker.
“I grew up a Lakers and a Clippers fan,” George said. “I idolized Kobe [Bryant]. There will always be a tie here, a connection here. People saying I want to come here, who doesn’t want to play for their hometown? That’s a dream come true, if you’re a kid growing up on the outskirts of L.A., to be the man in your city. But it’s definitely been overstated.
“For me, it’s all about winning,” George continued. “I want to be in a good system, a good team. I want a shot to win it. I’m not a stats guy. I’m playing this game to win and build a legacy of winning. I’ve yet to do that. I’m searching for it. If we get a killer season in Oklahoma, we make the conference finals or upset the Warriors or do something crazy, I’d be dumb to want to leave that.”
While we shouldn’t pencil in a long-term deal for George and the Thunder quite yet, his comments suggest it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll jump ship at season’s end. The star forward also sounds positive about Oklahoma City, having received an endorsement of the city and the organization from a somewhat unlikely source: a fellow All-Star who decided to leave OKC a year ago, Kevin Durant.
“KD was like, ‘That place will blow you away,'” George said. “He told me, ‘They can offer what other teams can’t in terms of the people and the preparation and the facility, down to the chefs and the meals.’ He was pretty high on them. He thought it was a first-class organization in every way.”
George will be eligible to hit the unrestricted free agent market in the summer of 2018, at which point the Lakers are expected to have room for at least one maximum contract, while the Thunder will hold George’s Bird rights and will have the ability to offer him more years and dollars than any other team.
JULY 10th, 10:52pm: Patterson has officially signed with the team, according to a Thunder press release.
JULY 4th, 9:07pm: The Thunder have reached an agreement with free agent big man Patrick Patterson, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two sides will do a three-year, $16.4MM deal. The third year on the contract will be a player option, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter).
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
Patterson, 28, had been with the Raptors since arriving in Toronto during the 2013/14 season as part of the team’s Rudy Gay trade with Sacramento. He was a reliable part of the Raptors’ rotation over the last three and a half years, providing rebounding, guarding opposing bigs, and making shots from outside (.372 3PT% in 2016/17).
Based on the reported terms of Patterson’s new deal with the Thunder, he’ll be receiving the club’s full taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth $16,354,800 over three years. Oklahoma City technically isn’t into tax territory yet, but the club is getting close to that threshold, and hasn’t yet re-signed restricted free agent Andre Roberson. Using the taxpayer MLE allows the Thunder to avoid being hard-capped for 2017/18, giving the club the flexibility to retain Roberson.
Oklahoma City is parting with Domantas Sabonis in its deal for Paul George, and lost Taj Gibson to the Timberwolves this week, so Patterson will help replenish the depth in the club’s frontcourt. Within his report on the agreement, Wojnarowski suggests that the Thunder envision Patterson as a starter, meaning the veteran figures to play alongside center Steven Adams, with Enes Kanter continuing to come off the bench.
Prior to their agreement with Patterson, the Thunder had been exploring a deal with Rudy Gay. ESPN’s Royce Young tweeted today that OKC appeared to be Gay’s preferred landing spot, but there was a “sizable gap” between his asking price and what the Thunder could offer. With Patterson now in the mix using the MLE, the Thunder may be out of the running on Gay, since acquiring anyone via a sign-and-trade would create a hard cap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
JULY 10th, 10:45pm: Felton has officially signed with the club, according to a team press release.
JULY 7th, 4:58pm: The Thunder have agreed to a one-year deal with veteran point guard Raymond Felton, Chris Haynes of ESPN tweets. The 32-year-old suited up for the Clippers in 2016/17.
The journeyman playmaker has bounced around over the course of the past decade, suiting up for seven teams since 2009/10. This year, on the heels of a 6.7 point-per-game campaign, he’ll slot in behind Russell Westbrook on Oklahoma City’s depth chart.
The Thunder had been actively seeking support for when Westbrook took breathers, unsatisfied with what rookie point guard Semaj Christon was able to provide in his first season with the club.
Felton’s track record has left much to be desired over the past few seasons but there’s hope that in the right situation he can be a serviceable reserve. In five playoff games for the Clippers in 2015/16, including four emergency starts, he averaged 15.0 points and 4.6 assists per game.
Oklahoma City has already used its taxpayer mid-level exception, so Felton figures to get a minimum salary deal.
JULY 10: The Timberwolves have officially signed Gibson, the team confirmed today.
JULY 2: The Timberwolves have agreed to sign free agent power forward Taj Gibson, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, Gibson will receive $28MM on a two-year deal from Minnesota.
The pact doesn’t include an option (player or team) for the second year, per Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter). News of the agreement comes on the heels of a report from Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link) that the Wolves’ interest in Gibson had “increased.”
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
By agreeing to join the Wolves, Gibson will reunite with Tom Thibodeau, who coached the forward in Chicago. He’ll also be joining former Bulls teammate Jimmy Butler, who was acquired by Minnesota in a blockbuster trade. The market for Gibson’s services was relatively quiet, with the only other team reportedly interested in him being the Kings.
Inking Gibson will wipe out most, if not all, of Minnesota’s remaining cap room. The Wolves are still armed with their Room Exception, valued at about $4.33MM, which can be used to further bolster their ever-improving roster. However, adding Gibson almost certainly eliminates the Wolves from the Paul Millsap sweepstakes, which may make the Nuggets the frontrunner to land the versatile forward.
The Timberwolves will likely have to renounce their qualifying offer for Shabazz Muhammad in order to sign Gibson, which would make the swingman an unrestricted free agent. Muhammad could – in theory – still return to Minnesota, but the Wolves would no longer have matching rights, allowing him to sign outright with another club.
Gibson, 32, split his time between the Bulls and Thunder last season. He appeared in a total of 78 contests, averaging 10.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 0.9 assists. He shot .515/.231/.715 from the field.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Luke Adams contributed to this post.