The OKC Thunder have an interesting NBA offseason ahead, with three first-round picks, a high second-rounder, and a ton of roster turnover. Next season will see a lot of new, young faces. While no one knows how the team will do record-wise, the Thunder will once again be one of the youngest teams in the entire National Basketball Association, and even younger than some college teams depending on their 2022 NBA Draft selections.
With that, comes players’ development. One of the best tools for player development is the NBA Summer League sessions following the NBA Draft. This is a time the Oklahoma City Thunder can bring in not only their 2022 NBA Draft selections, but young players from the OKC Blue who did not get a shot in the NBA last year, current Thunder players, undrafted rookies, and even some NBA veterans if they so choose.
The OKC Blue roster features a lot of interesting names, mainly Rob Edwards, Jahm’ius Ramsey, Melvin Frazier, and the team brought in Robert Woodard II to the Blue before the Spurs swooped him up. He could be eligible to join the summer squad as well. The team could even bring back recently waived Olivier Sarr for an NBA Summer League stint.
With Lindy Waters III and Tre Mann already committed to playing Summer League from the current Thunder, and the logical inclusion of guys like Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aaron Wiggins, plus swing players like Aleksej Pokusevski and Josh Giddey, the summer team will have a lot of names to cycle through.
OKC Thunder set to participate in two NBA Summer League sessions in July
It was announced on Wednesday that the Oklahoma City Thunder will be headed to Salt Lake City to participate in the Utah Jazz Summer circuit before heading to Vegas for the true NBA summer league. The Salt Lake City portion will take place July 5th through the 7th, while the team will be in Vegas from the 7th through the 11th.
In Salt Lake City, the Thunder will compete against the Jazz, Heat, 76ers, and Grizzlies. This is the first time the Thunder will take part in two NBA Summer Leagues, and the first non-Vegas site since the team originally moved to Oklahoma City and took part in the Orlando session until the NBA consolidated to a Vegas-only model. The Thunder routinely took part in the Magic Summer League until it was shut down by the NBA ins 2017, as the league did not like the no-fans aspect of playing in the Magic’s practice gym.