The OKC Thunder begins their preseason training camp on Tuesday, September 28th the team will be able to have a 20-man roster until October 18th when the entire league must trim their squad back down to 17-players including the two-way contracts.
Between now and mid-October, the OKC Thunder will do a ton of roster shuffling with their training camp invites and the roster cuts to get down to the 17-player group. The team will shuffle in and out camp invites to bolster the NBA G-League squad to help fill out the OKC Blue roster as well.
OKC Thunder waives Charlie Brown Jr and claims Mamadi Diakite from the Milwaukee Bucks
The Oklahoma City Thunder got the roster moves started early, on Sunday night they announced they have waived Charlie Brown Jr, who was on a fully non-guaranteed deal. This was an expected moved for the team who entered Sunday with 18 players on their roster.
However, the timing was unexpected. I would have thought the team would keep Charlie Brown Jr until October 18th before waiving him with the training camp invites as an easy and free way to get down to 17 active players.
However, Sam Presti and Clay Bennett deserve credit. Everyone knew Charlie Brown Jr is not a quality NBA player, he was a lame-duck with no shot at making the team. So why not cycle in a new project center and see if he can make the roster, even if cutting Diakite on October 18th will cost a touch over 100-thousand dollars.
Mamadi Diakite played with OKC Thunder guard Ty Jerome at the University of Virginia where the duo won an NCAA Championship with the Cavaliers.
As a rookie last season, the 24-year-old 6’9 center played in 14-games for the NBA Champion Bucks. He averaged three points, two rebounds, and almost an assist per game. From the line, the big man shot 78 percent, which could indicate floor-spacing ability we have not seen yet in the NBA. Diakite played 87-percent of his minutes at the center spot a year ago.
He will wear the number 12 for OKC, after wearing 25 for the Bucks. He is eligible to not only practice with the squad during training camp but also play in the team’s four preseason contests. The nearing 25-year-old small ball center was electric in the passing lanes, placing himself in the 90th percentile in steals in the NBA, with a 1.9 steal percentage according to cleaning the glass.