Oklahoma City Thunder Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nikola Jokic Reportedly Won’t Play In 2023 World Cup

July 23rd, 2023 at 9:00am CST by Luke Adams

Following a championship run with the Nuggets this spring, star center Nikola Jokic won’t suit up for Serbia in this summer’s World Cup, according to a report from Dejan Stankovic of Mozzart Sport.

As Stankovic details, there had been skepticism that Jokic would be available for Serbia at the World Cup after he played into mid-June with Denver. Mozzart Sport’s reporting indicates that the two-time NBA MVP has informed the Serbian national team of his decision and will get some extra rest in advance of training camp.

New Thunder guard Vasilije Micic – who signed a three-year contract with Oklahoma City earlier this month – may also skip the World Cup as he prepares for his first season in the NBA. There’s less certainty about Micic’s status at this point, but Stankovic suggests the longtime EuroLeague star will likely follow Jokic’s lead and decline to participate, leaving Serbia without another key piece of its projected rotation.

The FIBA World Cup is generally viewed as a less prestigious international event than the Olympics, so stars who miss this summer’s event in Asia may still end up playing for their national teams in 2024 in Paris. The U.S. World Cup team, for instance, is headlined by a younger group of stars such as Brandon Ingram, Anthony Edwards, and Tyrese Haliburton, but Team USA will likely have more big-name players available in France next year.

Still, non-U.S. stars are often more inclined to compete in non-Olympic international events than top American players are, so the fact that Serbia will likely be missing two of its best players is a tough blow for the team.

Serbia didn’t qualify for the previous Olympics in Tokyo and isn’t a shoo-in for Paris either — the club will be looking to improve upon its fifth-place finish in the 2019 World Cup. Serbia would have to finish as one of the top two European teams at this year’s World Cup in order to automatically qualify for the 2024 Olympics.

Northwest Notes: Wallace, Yurtseven, Kamagate, Jones

July 20th, 2023 at 9:59pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Thunder rookie shooting guard Cason Wallace learned a lot about basketball from his years playing football, as he told Sam Yip of HoopsHype.

“…I was like, playing safety, linebacker,” Wallace said. “You read the quarterback… you’re reading what the offense is going to do. So just being able to pick up on stuff like that and just see it before it happens.”

Wallace was selected with the No. 10 overall pick out of Kentucky by the Mavericks, and was subsequently dealt, on draft night, to Oklahoma City. The 6’4″ swingman also spoke about how he could fit in on his new club heading into the regular season.

“[If] I need to play on the wing, I’m capable,” Wallace said. “So just letting the ball flow, just playing basketball.”

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

New Jazz reserve center Omer Yurtseven feels that his years of seasoning with the Heat will benefit him in his new NBA home, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. Yurtseven inked a new two-year deal with Utah earlier in the offseason, though it’s only partially guaranteed. “[The Heat] had a really competitive environment, which allowed competitive players to thrive and I really appreciated that,” Yurtseven said. “I kind of took that with me in terms of applying that to everything — every drill, every day, every game. But I think more so I’m looking forward to what I’ll be able to learn and grow more into here.”
Center Ismael Kamagate, whose draft rights the Nuggets acquired after he was selected with the No. 46 pick in 2022, has officially inked a new contract with Italian EuroLeague club Olimpia Milano, the team announced in a press release. The 6’11” big man remains under Denver control should he eventually attempt to play in the NBA.
After more than 30 years of NBA experience as a player and coach, Nuggets assistant Popeye Jones is reveling in his first-ever league championship, writes Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. Jones has worked as a coach for five different clubs across his 17 seasons on the bench. “Once it was over, I think you just reflect back on your whole career — not just your coaching career but your playing career, everything that you’ve been through, from a little kid all the way through middle school to high school to college,” Jones said. “It was just a great feeling.”

Thunder Sign Jack White To Two-Year Deal

July 20th, 2023 at 5:21pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 20: The Thunder have announced in a press statement that the team has officially signed White. Oklahoma City waived veteran forward Rudy Gay to open up a roster spot.

JULY 1: The Thunder are signing free agent forward Jack White to a two-year contract, agent Sammy Wloszczowski tells Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (Twitter link).

White had been a restricted free agent after being issued a qualifying offer by the Nuggets. Based on Charania’s wording, it sounds like the Thunder are confident they won’t face resistance on the deal, whether that means Denver won’t match an offer sheet or the Nuggets are dropping the QO, making White unrestricted.

A 6’7″ forward out of Australia, White played four college seasons at Duke from 2016-20 but didn’t have a significant role. He had a bigger opportunity playing for Melbourne United of the NBL, which he used to garner NBA attention.

White played for Denver’s Summer League team last year and impressed, earning a two-way contract from the Nuggets. While he only made 17 appearances for 66 minutes in 2022/23 as a rookie for the reigning champions, he’ll get his ring and now lands a standard contract with OKC.

The 25-year-old had a strong showing for the Grand Rapids Gold (Denver’s G League affiliate) in the ’22/23 regular season, averaging 19.5 PPG, 8.9 RPG and 0.9 SPG on a .544/.409/.737 shooting line in 15 games (31.3 MPG). He was even more efficient during the fall Showcase cup, averaging 17.2 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.0 BPG and 0.9 SPG on .600/.500/.818 shooting in 12 games (32.5 MPG).

Thunder Waive Rudy Gay

July 20th, 2023 at 5:20pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 20: The Thunder have officially released Gay, per a press statement.

JULY 19: The Thunder are waiving forward Rudy Gay, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Gay, who turns 37 next month, has been traded twice this offseason. The Jazz sent him to Atlanta in the John Collins deal, and then the Hawks moved him to Oklahoma City in a salary dump.

As Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman tweets, releasing Gay will open up a roster spot, which the Thunder will use to officially sign Jack White. The two sides agreed to the terms of a contract on July 1, but OKC made some trades to add draft assets, temporarily putting the deal on hold.

Gay has had a long and highly productive NBA career, often popping up on lists of the best players to have never been an All-Star. He averaged at least 17 points and five rebounds per game in 10 consecutive seasons from 2007-2017 with the Grizzlies, Raptors and Kings.

While the 17-year veteran was still a solid performer as recently as 2020/21 with the Spurs, he battled injuries over his two seasons with the Jazz, appearing in just 111 of a possible 164 regular season games. His production slipped as well, with Gay posting career lows in virtually every major statistic over the past two campaigns.

Overall, Gay has appeared in 1120 regular season contests, including 779 starts, with career averages of 15.8 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.1 SPG and 0.7 BPG on .452/.346/.799 shooting in 30.9 MPG. In ’22/23, he averaged just 5.2 PPG and 2.9 RPG on .380/.254/.857 shooting in 56 games (14.6 MPG).

Gay is virtually certain to go unclaimed on the waiver wire, as he’ll earn a guaranteed $6,479,000 in ’23/24, which is the final year of his contract. The Thunder will be on the hook for that full amount in a couple days if he isn’t claimed, while the former UConn star will become an unrestricted free agent.

Anthony Slater of The Athletic previously identified the Warriors as a team that might be interested in Gay if he were to hit the open market.

Thunder’s Williams, Holmgren Among Players Joining USA Select Team

July 20th, 2023 at 4:01pm CST by Rory Maher

Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren of the Thunder and Jalen Green of the Rockets are among the young players joining the USA Select Team ahead of the upcoming FIBA World Cup, league sources tell Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic.

Those three players will be eligible to travel with Team USA to the Philippines and could potentially be added to the 12-man national team roster in the event of an injury, per The Athletic.

Williams, Holmgren and Green will be joined by Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and Kings forward Keegan Murray for Team USA’s training camp in a couple of weeks, where they will practice and scrimmage against the main roster, according to Charania and Vardon. As many as 12 players could end up being named to the Select Team.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported (via Twitter) that Cunningham would attend the training camp. The 2021 No. 1 overall pick was actually offered a spot on the senior team’s roster, according to Wojnarowski, but decided to forgo the opportunity in order to focus on the 2023/24 season. Cunningham was limited to 12 games last season due to a shin injury which required surgery.

Williams, the runner-up for the ’22/23 Rookie of the Year award, is coming off a stellar first season with OKC, averaging 14.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.3 APG and 1.4 SPG on .521/.356/.812 shooting in 75 games (30.3 MPG). Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick last year, missed the entire season due to foot surgery, but he’s healthy again and recently played during Las Vegas Summer League.

Green, the No. 2 overall pick in 2021, averaged 22.1 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 3.7 APG on .416/.338/.786 shooting in 76 games (34.2 MPG) for Houston last season. Murray was the fourth pick of last year’s draft. The former Iowa product averaged 12.2 PPG and 4.6 RPG while shooting 41.1% from three-point range during his All-Rookie First Team campaign.

The Americans will start training camp for the World Cup on August 3 in Las Vegas, with their first game scheduled later that month in the Philippines.

Contract Details: Yurtseven, Micic, Jones, Craig, Banton, Bazley, Petrusev

July 19th, 2023 at 11:06am CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz‘s deal with Omer Yurtseven is a two-year contract that features a partial guarantee for 2023/24 and is non-guaranteed in ’24/25, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

As previously reported, Yurtseven’s first-year salary is $2.8MM. His partial guarantee for the coming season is worth half that amount ($1.4MM), tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. The big man’s deal has a descending structure, Hoops Rumors has learned, so assuming he remains under contract through the first year, his cap hit for ’24/25 will dip to $2.66MM.

Here are more details on a few recently signed contracts from around the NBA:

Vasilije Micic‘s three-year, $23.5MM contract with the Thunder includes a team option in the third year, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The Spurs signed Tre Jones to a two-year contract with a descending structure, Hoops Rumors has learned. The guaranteed base salaries are worth approximately $9.9MM and $9.1MM, for a total of $19MM. Jones can earn an extra $1MM in unlikely incentives to increase the total value of the deal to $20MM.
Torrey Craig‘s two-year deal with the Bulls, which includes a second-year player option, is for the veteran’s minimum.
Dalano Banton‘s two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Celtics is partially guaranteed for $200K in 2023/24. His guarantee will increase to a little over $1MM (50% of his salary) if he remains on the roster beyond the first day of the regular season. His second year is a team option.
Darius Bazley‘s one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Nets is non-guaranteed. He’ll receive a $200K partial guarantee if he makes the opening-night roster. That partial guarantee would increase to $700K if he’s still under contract beyond December 15.
The Sixers signed Filip Petrusev to a two-year, minimum-salary contract that is non-guaranteed in the second season. The first year is partially guaranteed for $559,782, which is half of the rookie minimum (and the equivalent of the full-season salary for a player on a two-way contract).

Thunder Sign Mark Daigneault To Contract Extension

July 19th, 2023 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have signed head coach Mark Daigneault to a contract extension, the team announced today in a press release.

Oklahoma City didn’t provide any specific details on how long the new agreement will keep Daigneault under contract, simply referring to it as a “multiyear” deal.

Daigneault, 38, worked under Billy Donovan as a graduate student at Florida, then joined him as an assistant on the Gators staff from 2010-14 before making the move to OKC. He was the head coach of the Oklahoma City Blue – the Thunder’s G League affiliate – for several seasons while also serving as an assistant on Donovan’s staff with the NBA club in 2016 and again in 2019/20.

Following Donovan’s exit for Chicago in 2020, the Thunder promoted Daigneault to head coach. While his 86-150 (.364) record across three seasons doesn’t look great on paper, the rebuilding club has shown real signs of progress under Daigneault, particularly in 2022/23 — OKC went 40-42 during the regular season and won a play-in game in New Orleans before losing out on the No. 8 seed by dropping a second play-in contest in Minnesota.

Daigneault, who was the runner-up to Mike Brown in Coach of the Year voting this spring, will be tasked going forward with turning an ascendant team led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams, Luguentz Dort, and Chet Holmgren into a legitimate contender.

Thunder Sign Vasilije Micic To Three-Year Deal

July 17th, 2023 at 5:07pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 17: The Thunder have officially signed Micic, according to a team press release.

JULY 1: European star Vasilije Micic has agreed to a three-year, $23.5MM contract with the Thunder, agent Jason Ranne tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Micic traveled to Oklahoma City a few weeks ago to discuss a potential contract with the Thunder. A report last week from Christos Tsaltas of Sportal.gr stated that Micic was “determined” to play in the NBA in 2023/24, and now he’ll be coming stateside on a lucrative multiyear deal.

Micic, 29, was selected by Philadelphia with the 52nd overall pick in the 2014 draft. The Sixers traded his draft rights in 2020 to the Thunder, who have held them for the last three years.

The 6’5″ guard has been playing in Europe since 2010 and has been a member of Anadolu Efes since 2018. He won back-to-back EuroLeague championships with the club in 2021 and 2022 and was named the EuroLeague’s Most Valuable Player in 2021. He and Anadolu Efes have also claimed Turkish League titles in 2019, 2021, and 2023, with Micic earning Finals MVP honors this year.

The Thunder already have several young guards on their roster, but they seem quite high on the Serbian veteran. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), several teams trade to acquire Micic’s rights during last month’s NBA draft, including the Jazz, but OKC decided to retain him.

Micic averaged 16.0 points, 5.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds in 31 EuroLeague contests last season, posting a .435/.357/.870 shooting line in 31 games (31.3 minutes).

The Thunder may have their room exception, which can now be used on signings of up to three years, earmarked for Micic.

Thunder Notes: Holmgren, Mann, Williams, Presti

July 17th, 2023 at 8:58am CST by Arthur Hill

No matter what else happened for the Thunder, the highlight of Summer League was seeing Chet Holmgren back on the court, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. After missing all of last season with a Lisfranc injury to his right foot, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft showed off his potential in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, averaging 16.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in four games.

While he looked rusty in some areas, such as committing 15 turnovers and shooting 1-of-9 from three-point range, Mussatto notes that the most encouraging part of Holmgren’s game was watching him protect the basket. He averaged 3.5 blocks per game and used his 7’1″ frame to alter numerous other shots.

“Conditioning wise, there’s millions of hurdles you have to go through in the process of returning to play,” Holmgren said after his Summer League return. “Not being able to play a game for a year, it’s really hard to test and see where you are. … It’s definitely something I have to continue to work on, and I’ll be ready by the time training camp starts. I feel like I’ll have myself prepared to be in in-season shape.”

There’s more on the Thunder:

Tre Mann was shut down in Las Vegas due to an avulsion fracture in his right middle finger, but it’s not believed to be a long-term concern, Mussatto adds. The Thunder expect the backup point guard to resume basketball activities by the end of July.
The selection of Jaylin Williams in the second round of last year’s draft will allow Holmgren to spend more time at power forward and avoid the physical contact that comes with playing center, notes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Williams is a rugged 6’10” big man who led the NBA in drawing charges last season and shot 40.7% from beyond the arc. “It’s good because it allows my length to be found in the game in different ways,” Holmgren said of playing alongside Williams. “When he’s at the five, he’s in (screen) coverage more, and I’m able to kind of move around and roam the court a little more on defense, be the low man in help and be able to come over for blocks if somebody gets beat or use my length in the passing lanes and as an on-ball defender.”
General manager Sam Presti didn’t add anyone this summer who projects as a long-term keeper, Slater observes in the same piece. Presti opted to use his cap room to collect more draft assets while taking on the contracts of Davis Bertans, Victor Oladipo and Rudy Gay. Slater views Oladipo and Gay as buyout options, while Bertans may reach that status eventually with just $5MM guaranteed for 2024/25. Presti also traded for former first-round picks Usman Garuba and TyTy Washington, but Slater doubts that they’ll see much playing time considering the talent that’s already in place.

And-Ones: Team Canada, Ownership Stakes, Cap Room, Giles

July 15th, 2023 at 9:20am CST by Luke Adams

While a Team USA roster led by Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Brandon Ingram, and Mikal Bridges will enter the 2023 World Cup as the frontrunner next month, Team Canada’s initial 18-man group features some real star power.

The extended roster, announced this week by Canada Basketball, is headlined by Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder forward Luguentz Dort, Knicks forward RJ Barrett, and Rockets forward Dillon Brooks.

It also features five other players currently on NBA rosters: veteran big men Dwight Powell (Mavericks) and Kelly Olynyk (Jazz), guards Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Timberwolves) and Cory Joseph (Warriors), and forward Oshae Brissett (Celtics). Purdue’s star center Zach Edey is on the roster too.

Team Canada will have to make a few cuts to get down to 12 players for the World Cup, and it’s possible some of the more notable names will drop out in order to focus on the NBA season. However, league sources tell Joe Vardon of The Athletic that Murray has reaffirmed his commitment to the team despite a lengthy postseason run with the Nuggets this spring.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The minimum stake that someone can own in an NBA franchise has been lowered, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, who says a minority shareholder can now control as little as 0.5% of a team, down from 1%.
A total of eight teams operated below the cap this offseason, having entered the league year with $277MM in combined cap room, per Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. As Gozlan outlines, over half of that league-wide cap space was used to accommodate trades or contract negotiations rather than free agent signings.
Sean Cunningham of FOX40 in Sacramento (video link) caught up with free agent big man Harry Giles to talk about the 25-year-old’s efforts to make it back into the NBA, as well as the new rule related to two-way contracts that will unofficially be named after him.