The OKC Thunder waived Olivier Sarr during the final week of the 2021-22 NBA Season. Releasing him from his two-way pact, and inking Melvin Frazier to the same deal instead. Is this a big deal for the Oklahoma City Thunder?
No.
Okay, I promise that is not the end of the article, but it is a good summary. When the Oklahoma City Thunder elected to waive Sarr, surprisingly sent some OKC Thunder fans into a panic, outrage, and a sense of shock.
The 23-year-old seven-footer logged 22 games this season as a rookie for the Thunder after an impressive G-League stint. In his last five games, Sarr turned in 14.8 points per game, seven rebounds, an assist, and a block per tilt while shooting 53-percent from three-point land, and 62-percent from the floor.
Was waiving Olivier Sarr a big deal for the OKC Thunder, opening up a two-way slot?
Those five games, as the Oklahoma City Thunder injury report, spanned two pages and there was not much to take home from the last handful of games of the 2021-22 NBA season. So, while Mark Daigneault played at times just six players down the stretch of this season, someone had to step up and produce numbers. Enter Sarr, who like Moses Brown a year ago, surprised fans with his performance.
However, unlike Brown, who logged a 20 point 20 rebound game a year ago, it did not feel in the moment that the fanbase was rallying around Sarr as much. Some called Brown the center of the future a year ago, which was always misinformed. It felt as though fans learned their lesson.
That was of course until the team waived Sarr last week, then the DMs, mentions, and comment sections flooded with outrage. But why? It does not matter.
Sarr has no NBA trait. He lacks mobility, he can’t catch the ball in the post and is a streaky three-point shooter that in a small sample size mustered 44-percent from deep. He cannot play modern NBA defense, and never truly stood out. You have to give him credit for his hustle and effort night in and night out, and everyone deserves to chase their dream, but in all of the tanking madness over the last few seasons, THIS is where you draw the line?
Sarr was never long for the Thunder, destined to play out the string of the season before being released this summer to open up a two-way slot. The fact they cut him three games early, one game in which they ran up against Rudy Gobert, to be able to properly tank the Thunder removed their only center option down low. In that game, Gobert went off, and the Jazz earned the win.
There was no reason to panic over this move, it had to be done either now or later. With the Oklahoma City Thunder already invested in Lindy Waters III who inked a two-year two-way deal, they had to open up their second and final two-way spot for the offseason. Sam Presti is known for using two-way slots to take swings, and now he only has one slot to work with.
The OKC Thunder will search high and low throughout the undrafted free-agent market, and see which players are released from current NBA rosters, to evaluate how to use the open two-way contract. It was the first move for the future, it was the predictable move, it just came three games early.