10 OKC Thunder players that never logged a single minute for the franchise
By Rylan Stiles
Players at numbers 6, 5, 4, and 3 share many similarities to the current-day OKC Thunder squad.
The OKC Thunder were in this exact spot a season ago. OKC featured an overflowing roster that left Thunder fans scratching their heads, stressing over which players would be cut from the roster.
As we sit here just weeks away from training camp, the Oklahoma City Thunder again have 21 players on their roster and have to cut three standard NBA pacts before the start of the NBA regular season. Could the path to cleaning up the roster requirements follow last season’s model?
Last season, Media Day lasted approximately 22 hours as all the players shuffled in and out of the media room. Everyone was left scrambling to give their pre-training camp roster prediction, which was soon null and void.
Sam Presti pulled the trigger on a trade with the Houston Rockets that sent Theo Maledon, Ty Jerome, Derrick Favors, and Mo Harkless to the Rockets while bringing back Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, and David Nwaba.
This paperwork move made the decision on who to cut and the financial impact easier for the OKC Thunder leading up to the season open. While there was a pocket of fans excited about Chriss’ potential as a more traditional big man or Nwaba’s defensive versatility, ultimately, no one suited up for the Bricktown boys in a regular season game.
It is hard to believe that the swap was nearly a year ago; it feels like a distant memory.