OKC Thunder: Goals for Donte Grantham and Richard Solomon to impress in camp

Examining what OKC Thunder training camp invites Donte Grantham and Richard Solomon must do to impress Billy Donovan and brain trust in camp

Although it’s not unheard of training camp invites sometimes do enough at training camp to earn a roster spot. This option is more likely on squads who aren’t over flowing with depth. For example a training camp invite might make it onto the Hawks. This is not the case for the OKC Thunder.

In particular this season the Thunder crew arrive to camp with arguably their greatest depth ever. Superstars Russell Westbrook and Paul George are the focus of the team along with core contributors Steven Adams and Andre Roberson. The remainder of the roster comprised of youthful athletic players tempered with middle tenured players and two veteran voices (Patrick Patterson and Raymond Felton).

General Manager Sam Presti did a solid job this offseason first via a draft which selected two youngsters for development and a last minute draft night trade to bring in another talented rookie.  To this point just one of the three will spend time with the varsity group along with the two 2-way contracted players.

Following the primary business of re-signing George and Jerami Grant, Presti signed Nerlens Noel to an economical deal. And, in what might be considered a coup the OKC GM pulled off the trade which sent out Carmelo Anthony and somehow managed to bring back talent in the form of Dennis Schroeder and after another small trade to land Timothe Luwawu Cabarrot. A few other series of minor moves shed undesirable contracts and brought back Abdel Nader.

The result is training camp begins with 14 cemented contracts and one open roster spot. Although Westbrook and Roberson won’t be involved in the camp proceedings everyone else will be on hand including the rookies, two-way contracted players and training camp invites Donte Grantham and Richard Solomon.

These two players likely have no shot of making the varsity squad. That said, they’ll need to push the contracted players and if their lucky earn a spot on the G-League OKC Blues. Although it’s not a guarantee either player could nab the final roster spot the reason it’s unlikely is two fold. History has proven Presti likes to function with an open roster spot. Secondarily, the luxury tax situation doesn’t make it likely Presti would sign a player who won’t spend time on the court just to pay at least another $7 million in tax.

Still, let’s have a look at the two camp invites and determine what they should be focused on delivering when camp starts on Tuesday.