Over the past several weeks, there’s been quite a bit of change in Oklahoma City. For starters, the Thunder are amidst a five-game losing streak, which has altered the projection of the team the rest of the way. They’ve fallen to No. 13 in the Western Conference, and while there’s still a chance of making the play-in the odds are getting more slim.
Even before this losing streak, the team began to experience changes on the roster. Early in February at the deadline, the Thunder traded away Darius Bazley and Mike Muscala while bringing in Dario Saric.
More recently, two-way forward Eugene Omoruyi was converted to a full-time contract just before NBA All-Star Weekend, which cleared the way to sign center Olivier Sarr to his spot. Just over two weeks later, Omoruyi was waived which opened up one spot on the Thunder’s 15-man roster. From there, two-way wing and Oklahoma native Lindy Waters III was then converted to a full-time contract with the team.
This once again opened up a two-way spot for a player to split time between the Thunder and their G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. In what was a fantastic signing by the front office, OKC signed former second-round pick Jared Butler to that second and final two-way spot alongside Sarr.
This acquisition feels more significant than the standard two-way signing around the league given the upside of Butler. Entering the 2021 NBA Draft, he had just come off of winning a National Championship with Baylor as a headline piece. He had first-round upside, but ultimately fell to the Utah Jazz with the No. 40 overall pick.
In his rookie season with the Jazz, the 6-foot-3 guard appeared in 42 games while producing 3.8 points and 1.5 assists in 8.6 minutes per game. Utah was looking to win it all last season, so he spent more time in the G League to develop his game as a young player.
Following the two blockbuster moves the Jazz made following his rookie season in trading Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, the team was flooded with an inbound of young talent. As such, Butler was waived before the start of the 2022-23 season with how much competition there was on the roster in camp. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t picked up by an NBA team, but rather signed to the Grand Rapids Gold of the G League. This season, he’s been phenomenal and has averaged 19.5 points to go along with 5.2 assists per game while shooting 45.8% from deep on high volume in the G League.
Now that he’s joined the Thunder on a two-way deal, the expectation is that he will spend time playing at both the NBA and G League levels the rest of the season as the front office evaluates him in their system.
On the same day that the Butler signing was announced, Oklahoma City also released the news that forward Kenrich Williams had suffered a season-ending wrist injury. It ended up being a scapholunate ligament rupture in his left wrist that happened during Tuesday’s contest against the Sacramento Kings.
Williams was one of the most important pieces of the Thunder roster this season and a significant reason they had been able to outperform expectations thus far. With his versatility on both ends, he set the tone playing several different positions as lineup needs changes with injuries throughout the year. He was also one of the key veterans in the locker room and on the floor.
Through 53 games (10 starts) this season, he averaged 8.0 points on 51.7% shooting from the field, 4.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 22.8 minutes per game. Williams’ 26 charges drawn still lead the NBA.
Between the loss of Williams and the other roster shakeups over the past few weeks, this Thunder team now looks quite a bit different. Oklahoma City hopes to get Aleksej Pokusevski back from injury in the near future to fill some of Williams’ void in the frontcourt.
The Thunder’s next chance to snap their current losing streak will come against the Utah Jazz on Friday night in Oklahoma City.