OKC Thunder shuffle pieces with Houston

The Oklahoma City Thunder made a trade on Thursday that shuffled back end of the roster players between the Houston Rockets and the Thunder organization. While this is just a money-saving move, it does impact the roster crunch in a big way even before the OKC Thunder play their first preseason game on October 3rd in Denver.

The Thunder, like most NBA teams, came into training camp with a full 20-man roster, the maximum amount of players allowed by NBA rules. The difference in Bricktown versus other NBA teams is the fact the Thunder came into the week with 20 players they invested a lot into in some form of fashion. Not just three sure-fire NBA G-League players that the team is trying to secure the rights to.

That left the burning question as to what happens with the Oklahoma City Thunder roster. They can not keep all 20 players and would be forced to waive three standard NBA deals, losing the player and encouraging some more dead money for this season. OKC general manager Sam Presti made it known this is a good spot to be in, despite the tough decisions. Two years ago the Thunder did not have a full 17-man roster of NBA hopefuls, much less 20. Now, they are going to cut players who have an NBA future ahead of them.

OKC Thunder and Houston Rockets shuffle backend pieces makes roster crunch easier for Oklahoma City

It was announced by the team Friday that the Oklahoma City Thunder would send Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, Derrick Favors, Moe Harkless, and a second-round pick to the Houston Rockets in exchange for David Nwaba, Trey Burke, Sterling Brown, and Marquese Chriss. This move allows OKC to dip further below the Luxury tax line for a team projected to finish near the bottom of the standings.

For Houston, they only take on an additional million dollars but gain a second-round pick. The team announced that the second-round pick will be a 2026 second-rounder the second-least favorable of the Thunder, Mavericks, and 76ers’ second-round pick that year.

Oklahoma City will almost assuredly waive all four players they got back in this trade with the Houston Rockets, in doing so they would have an open roster spot to use on either converting Lindy Waters III to a standard NBA pact from his current two-way status or leaving open as Presti has previously done with OKC.

For now, though, the roster is back to 20 players. If any of these Rockets make the OKC Thunder roster, I would expect Marquese Chriss or David Nwaba to have the best shot at it.