The Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2023-24 season kicks off on Wednesday of this week, as a campaign with high external expectations begins to unfold. The team won 40 games in the 2022-23 season, but will have an opportunity to be even better this time around.
For any team, the work starts long before the season begins. Over the past several weeks, the Thunder has been putting in tremendous work during training camp and taking the court in preseason games. However, there’s always decisions that must be made during this process.
Just like in past seasons, Oklahoma City entered training camp earlier this month with more players than it would be able to carry into the regular season. As such, Thunder GM Sam Presti and his staff would have to really evaluate all options during camp and preseason action to get the 15-man roster finalized. Per usual, Presti got creative in making that happen.
While some of the moves made before camp appeared easier — such as waiving Usman Garuba, TyTy Washington and Rudy Gay after acquiring them via trade attached to draft capital — the players that were carried into October would be more difficult cuts.
The first pair of players were removed from the roster about a week ago, but through a trade rather than waiving them. The Thunder sent Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Victor Oladipo to the Houston Rockets for two second-round picks and Kevin Porter Jr., who was immediately waived. While Oladipo was likely never going to play for the Thunder given his injury situation and contract, Robinson-Earl being traded was fairly significant. Sure, he was one of the more likely players to not be on the team in the upcoming season, but he was an early second-round pick just over two years ago and looked like a key rotational piece as a rookie. Injuries, inconsistent play and being surrounded by a lot of young talent hindered his sophomore campaign, so now the 22-year-old finds himself in a new situation fighting for a roster spot in Houston.
That trade left the roster at 16 players on full-time NBA contracts before Jack White was waived on Sunday afternoon to get the number down to 15. He was signed this summer on a partially guaranteed deal that was surprising at the time given the Thunder was already facing a roster crunch. Nonetheless, the do-it-all forward looked solid in camp but didn’t ultimately make the cut.
Now that these moves have been made, here’s the Thunder’s official 15-man roster for the 2023-24 campaign, along with the trio of two-way players.
- Aaron Wiggins
- Aleksej Pokusevski
- Cason Wallace
- Chet Holmgren
- Davis Bertans
- Isaiah Joe
- Jalen Williams
- Jaylin Williams
- Josh Giddey
- Kenrich Williams
- Lu Dort
- Ousmane Dieng
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- Tre Mann
- Vasilije Micic
- Keyontae Johnson*
- Lindy Waters*
- Olivier Sarr*
*indicates two-way player
Not only was the roster finalized this weekend, but additional roster decisions were made that impact the future. On Saturday, the Thunder announced that the team had exercised its third-year contract option on Ousmane Dieng, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and its fourth-year contract option on Josh Giddey and Tre Mann.
Now that the roster is set, the Thunder will travel to Chicago for its opener against the Bulls on Wednesday.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholascrain/2023/10/22/oklahoma-city-thunders-15-man-roster-finalized-ahead-of-2023-24-season/