In addition to signing Georgios Kalaitzakis to a 10-day hardship contract, the Thunder have also added guard Zavier Simpson to their roster using a hardship exception, per NBA.com’s official transactions log.
As we noted when we discussed Kalaitzakis’ signing earlier today, Oklahoma City has a full 15-man roster, but is eligible to sign additional players to short-term contracts because the team qualifies for multiple hardship exceptions due to all its injured players. The Thunder now have 20 players under contract, including two-ways.
Simpson, who went undrafted out of Michigan in 2020, has spent his first two professional seasons playing for the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate. In 35 regular season NBAGL games in 2022, he has averaged 14.5 PPG, 6.7 APG, 5.1 RPG, and 1.5 SPG with a .487/.353/.686 shooting line in 32.3 MPG.
It looked earlier this season like Simpson would get a call-up on a COVID-related 10-day hardship contract, but he entered the health and safety protocols himself before the deal was officially finalized. Three months later, he’ll get a chance to play in the Thunder’s final four games of the season.
“Injured” players. What a joke. Just dump this franchise already or make them clean up their act!
Expand new teams and keep the old
Under Adam Silver the NBA will probably fold…
Haterz gonna hate
Except this tanking team just beat the #1 team in the nba…by 21.
We can’t even tank right. This is right after Detroit beat Indi to give us the #3 worst record outright….
Okc was in prime spot and blew it.
So sorry if your complaining doesn’t hold much water.
Get mad at Houston and Orlando before us.
I agree with afsooner02. You can be mad all you want at management if you believe the season-ending injuries are mostly being feigned. However, Daigneault still has this team playing hard on a consistent basis, irregardless of the personnel.
Thus, OKC is by no means a free win, meaning competitive balance is not really an issue. If anything, Portland has been a lot less competitive lately…
Don’t arrest me for murder, officer. This guy just murdered 2 people. He’s way worse. Therefore I am not guilty.
You’re losing sight of the argument. It doesn’t matter if OKC isn’t putting their best players out there if they still put forth effort and have the potential to defeat any given team on any night (as evident when they defeated Phoenix).
You want Silver to punish the franchise, but on what grounds? The team and players are still competing. It’s not like they’re consistently getting blown on a nightly basis.
Furthermore, we don’t know if the injuries are real or not. I’m sure some of them are probably exaggerated, but a losing team has less incentive to force a player to compete at less than 100 percent. This only risks reaggravation and with this few games left, why bother?
It also needs to be mentioned that you only complain about this when it’s the Thunder. If you actually cared about fair play, you would be more consistent with your criticisms
If you need 4 injured players for the 1st hardship, how does it work after that, 1 for 1?
Yep, exactly. Five injured players = two hardships, six injured = three hardships, etc.