The Oklahoma City Thunder had an interesting offseason when it came to Norman, Oklahoma Native Lindy Waters III. After declining his team option, the OKC Thunder re-signed him on a two-way pact later in the Summer after the Vegas Summer League trip.
The NBA and NBA Player’s Association agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to allow teams to sign up to three two-way contracts. These pacts do not go against your allotment of 15 standard contracts and can be shuffled back and forth between the NBA G-League at any time.
The only catch being two-way players can only be active in a maximum of 50 games in the NBA, and they are not rollover minutes. Even if a player has not appeared in the maximum amount of games, he is still ineligible for the postseason unless converted to a standard contract.
That is where Lindy Waters III found himself last season, at the end of the 2022-23 campaign, being inked to a standard contract that allowed Mark Daigneault to play Waters III in the Play-In Tournament.
Last season, the improved defense from Waters III allowed him to earn the trust of the OKC Thunder bench boss and become a fixture of the rotation late in the season. However, this is a new campaign, and things have not necessarily picked up as they left off a year ago.
Lindy Waters III leaves the game against the Chicago Bulls early with a back injury, the severity of which is unknown.
So far this season, Lindy Waters III has played in seven games but has used an additional two active days to bring his total to nine games active out of the 50 allotted. After playing in three of the first five contests, Waters III has only played in four since.
After being an early insert into the OKC Thunder lineup in this contest against the Bulls, Lindy Waters III left early with what the team calls “low back spasms.”
Lindy Waters III will not return (low back spasms). Per Thunder PR
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) November 23, 2023
The severity of this injury is unknown at this time, and everyone’s body responds differently. The OKC Thunder have already seen Kenrich Williams miss ten games with back spasms that he sustained in the preseason.
Williams is 28 years old, while Waters III is only 26, so we will wait on any further update from Mark Daigneault post-game about this injury to the Oklahoma State product.
Check back to Thunderous Intentions all season long for complete coverage of this OKC Thunder season.