By rule, an NBA team is allowed 15 roster spots of players signed and practicing, three of those being required inactive players. (You have to have 13 players with the team, one being out of uniform and inactive to be clear.) After the draft, Oklahoma City will have 15 players under contract, including new additions Morris Peterson, Cole Aldrich and Daequan Cook. Add Tibor Pleiss to the mix, who Sam Presti is expected to persuade to stay here instead of going back overseas, and that puts the Thunder at 16.
So, what’s the story with OKC’s new roster situation?
First, I think it’s fairly clear that OKC won’t be playing much, if at all in free agency this summer. Presti continues to follow his plan to build through the draft with a young team that can grow together. Some had pipe dreams of Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, but all along we should’ve known that Presti would hold to form.
Second, both Kevin Ollie and Etan Thomas are coming off the books so don’t worry about them filling spots.
Third, if Pleiss stays here, he’s almost certainly destined for a full season in the D-League, and I’m sure Byron Mullens will spend a hefty amount of time there too. So that frees two “spots” in terms of the inactive issue, but those roster spots are still occupied by those players on the overall roster. So while they might be in the D-League, OKC still claims them as part of its roster. But if Pleiss chooses to stay in Europe another year, OKC can keep Peterson or sign Latavious Williams instead. But regardless of that, I think Peterson is getting bought out, just to have the roster flexibility. Presti likes that stuff.
And fourth, Kyle Weaver and D.J. White can’t be sent back down to Tulsa anyway. Rules state only first and second year players can be sent down. So they’ve got to find a spot on the active 15-man roster or find other work. D-League rules only allow two NBA contract players at a time to be in the D-League at a time, so Pleiss and Mullens would fill that. OKC can get around things by having the 66ers sign Latavious Williams and then if a call-up is necessary, sign him then. It’s all very complicated you see.
So what happens right now? The Thunder have too many people and not enough spots. The obvious thing is that both D.J. White and Kyle Weaver may be looking for work soon. With their time up for D-League action, they’re either going to have to prepare to wear a suit all year or hope for an injury to crack the active roster. Another option, which looks more likely, is Morris Peterson’s $6.2 million contract is bought out, which frees up a roster spot. At this point, there’s no room for him anyway which the addition of Daequan Cook. Obviously Cook could get the adios instead, but I think Presti wants to keep him.
The Roster Locks
Russell Westbrook
Kevin Durant
Jeff Green
Nenad Krstic
Eric Maynor
Serge Ibaka
Nick Collison
James Harden
Thabo Sefolosha
Cole Aldrich
The Probablies
Daequan Cook
Tibor Pleiss (assuming he stays here)
Kyle Weaver
D.J. White
Byron Mullens
The Maybe Nots
Morris Peterson
Latavious Williams
Ryan Reid
Including the locks and the probably players, that’s 15 spots on the dot. Mullens could go to the D-League for the season along with Pleiss and Weaver and White could rotate between that 13th inactive man. But if Peterson isn’t bought out, then things would get complicated. Another player has to be cut and is that White or Weaver? That’s why I think it’s pretty clear that Peterson’s contract will get swallowed. Latavious Williams probably won’t get a deal from the Thunder but instead the 66ers, as will Reid, if he gets one at all (seriously, what sense did this pick make?).
This is why it made little sense for the Thunder to use all three first round pick, or even just two. What would the Thunder do with these guys? Other players would have to be cut or bought out and it would take a lot of shuffling to find room for everyone. Besides, the roster is pretty much stocked as it is. The Thunder doesn’t need more players. They just need players to develop.
Also, what about the depth chart? Here’s an early rough draft (inactive players in bold):
PG: Russell Westbrook, Eric Maynor
SG: Thabo Sefolosha, James Harden, Daequan Cook, Kyle Weaver
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Jeff Green, Nick Collison, Serge Ibaka, D.J. White
C: Nenad Krstic, Cole Aldrich, Byron Mullens, Tibor Pleiss
Obviously some players there are very interchangeable (Green to small forward, Ibaka to center and so on). The other obvious question is, where does Aldrich fit in? Scott Brooks has already said he prefers a nine-man rotation. Can Aldrich take time away from Nick Collison or Serge Ibaka? Obviously no, so either Brooks will have to cut minutes for someone, not play Aldrich much at all or expand to a 10-man rotation. And I assume Daequan Cook will at least see some time early on for a chance. So we might even see 11 players in a rotation at some point.
The thing people need to understand about picking Aldrich is that he’s truly the only candidate that helps the Thunder now. Unless Oklahoma City moved into the top five, the Thunder weren’t going to find anyone that could find minutes next year. Everything else was a project. And the thing about Aldrich is that he’s a different piece than anything OKC’s got inside. Yes, I preferred a big man that had back-to-the-basket ability, but Aldrich is a player that can specifically dedicate his existence to rebounding, setting picks, making sharp outlet passes, pushing on big bodies inside and protecting the rim. OKC doesn’t have a single great individual rebounder. Aldrich can be that.
The Thunder will have to make some kind of transaction before October to clear space on the roster. The question is, how does the organization view some of these guys? Are there still hopes for Kyle Weaver to turn into a player you want to keep? He’s a great practice player, but is he worth it? And what about Aldrich? Does he take minutes from Nenad Krstic? Does he eventually start over Krstic by the end of the season?
These are the questions will start to see answered by the time training camp rolls around next year. Heck, right now the trade isn’t even official yet. The Thunder’s definitely not done transacting, but I wouldn’t count on anything major the rest of the way. Except for when KD signs his extension. That’ll be a pretty big deal.
@justin
Pleiss gained nearly 20 pounds over the last season, but still looks skinny.
He went up from 110 to 117kg which are 158lbs,
as he said it in this german interview (I'm german)
http://www.spox.com/de/sport/mehrsport/1003/Artikel/tibor-pleiss-brose-baskets-bamberg-nba-dirk-bauermann-elias-harris-robin-benzing.html
this article is awfully written!!
I really hope Pleiß stays another year with Bamberg and continues to develop. This was the first year he really got some playing time and he used it nicely. Now he needs to be consistend and prove his game in the euroleague. Than at the earliest he should come over. He´s just 21 and his developement so far has been astonishing. Remember he didn´t even get much playing time at the euro championship even though we didn´t have Dirk or Kaman. I believe he will be in the nba soon and he will prove a steal for OKC but not this year.
@Anonymous
sorry Mrs. Green but Danny speaks the truth. Your son isn't an championship caliber starting PF. Sorry.
get ray allen and fuck you justin
get ray allen
Personally, I feel that the thunders starting five next year will consist of:
PG Westbrook
SG Harden
SF Durant
PF Green
C Aldrich
With Maynor, Thabo, and Ibaka getting the majority of the bench minutes. As a Lakers fan I saw the Thunder making it to the finals two years from now, but as this off season has played out I think that the Thunder have addressed their two primary needs in outside shooting and rebounding with Cook, Peterson, and Aldrich.
I could legitmately see the Thunder contending for the WC paticularly if Phil Jackson decideds not to come back and Durant adds the neccessary strength to keep his position against the likes of Artest.
@DXL
Where have you seen it listed that he's 255? I find this very hard to believe. How recent was that game?
@justin
He's 7'1" or 7'2" in shoes, he can be 255 and still be skinny. He's the same size as Mullens, who looks also looks skinny but weighed 258 at the combine. When Pleiss fills out he'll be 270 or more.
from Hornet fans,they think Mo is useless and valueless
kinda late ... i really wanted jordan crawford ... he has a thunder "feel/look" to him
That's from 3pt range BTW.
Mo Pete is pretty highly regarded as a teammate as far as I know. He was pretty popular in his Toronto days.
He's still a good shooter. He shot 1-3 or better in 26 of his 46 games. D. Cook shot 1-3 or better in 20 of his 45 games. Peterson's a better shooter than him...
@Greg
NOPE
justin :
I’m leaning towards not wanting Mo Peterson to be bought out. He’s a better shooter than D. Cook and he’s a veteran.
I think they're both streaky. Peterson had some brutal games shooting this year, really bad ones. Cook struggled himself. But at least Cook has shown the ability when given the opportunity, and he's 23. Is Peterson a highly respectable vet or something?
Morgan :@GAP
Can’t jump…..you tryin to make a white joke. I’m tired of being oppressed because we can’t jump
Not a joke, i've watched him his whole college career and he just seems slow and unathletic. :)
I'm leaning towards not wanting Mo Peterson to be bought out. He's a better shooter than D. Cook and he's a veteran.
Despite everyones optimism, Im not sure anyone here realizes how good were going to be next year. 56 wins, minimum. Harden must be a starter. The transition game will be stupifying with him in it. I think his defense will impress people. Westbrook will get aat least 3 triple doubles this year. I wouldnt be surprised if Harden and Durant got one for themselves. I think its possible and if so, has any other team ever had 3 guys on their team that are capable of a triple double?
Most of us here have been ferevnt advocates of the Thunder these past two years, having to explain that the Thunder was indeed not a roller derby team. Their about to become the most exciting team in the NBA.
I hope Lebron goes to NYC and I hope he gets surrounded by some great talent and tehn we can meet them in teh finals. That would be mid blowing!
@Daniel Plainview
Should be playing in the Orlando Summer League.
Dante & Galante!
I just checked teh summer league Sched and tehre was no OKC. Is this reality? Cause Im monitoring all Aldrichs moves, and Hasssan Whitesides.
There's no way that kid is 250.
Anyway, I can see what they want in him. He's long, tall, and seems skilled. He will have to improve a ton to be an NBA player. They compared him to a young Rik Smits. That's wishful thinking, IMO.
This Pleiss kid is huge, and is going to be a terror on defense. Great movement and activity playing the pick and roll. I'm glad he's now coming over for a year, his body has to mature. Right now he'd get eaten up in post-up situations. But remember he's not 220 anymore, he's 250 or more.
The protection on the Clippers pick if it is just top 10 is better than I expected. With the Clippers improvement (their team is stacked) their pick could easily be from 11 to 15.
Okay... found some better videos. He's much more mobile than Collision and he does have pretty good court vision (judging of course by highlights). I don't expect him to finish as well in the NBA with that drop step, but the good news is he actually has one. So two post moves.
When his back is to the basket, he does one of two things, a drop step to the baseline, or that little jump hook/short jumper. He's surprisingly quick once he decides to execute. Problem is, NBA bigs will just cut off the baseline and force him to take that jump hook with help D in his face... but he has proven he can make that shot in traffic (over college players). I didn't see him pass out of any double teams... he passes but it's usually when he first gets the ball and is looking to the opposite side of the court for an open man or cutter.
If some of these things translate to the NBA, I think he could actually be a nice addition on the offensive end, certainly better than what we have now.
I watched pretty much all the highlights youtube had available for Aldrich.
It seems to me that he could develop a nice offensive game because he has a nice touch, good hands and is fairly moble. At the moment he has only ONE post move, a step back, turn around jumper. This seems to be his default when in traffic, especially if he get's double teamed.
So far as I can tell, he has no (unassisted) post moves that take him back to the basket, and I didn't see a single pick-n-roll or pick-n-pop. It could just be the highlights I watched, but I didn't really see the passing skills or defense either... you know how youtube highlight videos are.
I think it will come down to his aggressiveness. He's a lot like Collison, but I think Aldrich is more assertive on the offense end. Collison actually has a few nice moves when he choses to uese (which is never), I think we will see more of it from Aldrich.
Pleiss and Summer League:
If he is not under contract in Germany he could play easy, if he is it would take his german team agree to let he do it (and probably some insurance in case he got hurt), they might let him depending on his contract details as it might be better for them to get good buyout money now.
I doubt so for one big reason: he is in the roster from the German team for the World Championship. I think they still need to cut four names, but given that neither Nowitzki nor Kaman are playing they are thin on bigs, he is probably safe. So we will likely get some good minutes of Pleiss in a high level international competition this summer (and Germany might play against US in the second round), but I wouldn't judge him to hard there.
Simon :
dream catcher :
if so thank you very much for this.
It is. You guys are fast.
The positive and negative things Pleiss is doing in this game, he’s been doing all second half of the regular season & playoffs. So it is quite representative of his overall abilities. (even if he didn’t get a double double every game)
I really like his length(he must have a 9'4" standing reach). He seems to have really active hands on defense, always getting his hands up to contest shots. He also seems to do a good job rotating on D quickly. On offense he looks like he needs to gain more strength both in upper body and lower body. His shooting motion looks pretty good.....
Defensive footwork needs some work. He can learn to play more athletically. A few of those fouls were terrible calls. The fade away from the free throw line was pretty. I love his activity in the pick and roll on both ends. I can see the upside there. Thanks Simon!
dream catcher :
if so thank you very much for this.
It is. You guys are fast.
The positive and negative things Pleiss is doing in this game, he's been doing all second half of the regular season & playoffs. So it is quite representative of his overall abilities. (even if he didn't get a double double every game)
Simon :
I have footage of Pleiss screening, rebounding, shooting midrange jumpers, making free throws, comitting fouls, making rookie mistakes, blocking, complaining to the refs on my harddisk from his playoff G5 which I could upload on Youtube. But then there are millions of his clips on the internet and all you guys have probably watched hundreds of his games, so there’s probably no demand from your part for such thing.
is this the game you uploaded? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78STT_Xt6WI
if so thank you very much for this.
Are we possibly underestimating Aldrich's ability to become a better scorer? Could he develop some inside moves over the next couple years that would make him a threat to be a 12/10 type player? It just seems like we're jumping to conclusions saying that he is only going to be on the court for defensive reasons. His highlights seem to indicate that he already has more inside movies than Krstic (not that that's saying alot) and a funky outside shot that could replace Krstic's 15 foot jumper. Maybe Aldrich IS an upgrade offensively...
Obviously Aldrich will have to play more than 26mpg in order to produce the same numbers he did in college, but lets say he gets the starting job and plays around 30 minutes per game.
10pts 10reb and 2.5blks in 30-33 minutes per game would be insane!
Aldrich will start for the thunder; No doubt about it!! The Thunder don't need another scorer! They need someone who can grab rebounds, block shots, and play tough interior defense.
Aldrich fits that mold perfectly. If he produces that same numbers he put up in college his Junior season (11pts 9.8rbs 3.5blks in only 26min per game), then consider him a MASSIVE success.
@GAP
Can't jump.....you tryin to make a white joke. I'm tired of being oppressed because we can't jump
Greg :@ThunderHorn
What was Oden’s vertical?
And what are the chances of any alternate uniforms this year, maybe creamsicles? That’s not likely. But an alteration to the road unis?
Oden's vertical was 32 no step, 34 max. He's a freak.
I was just kidding and partly picking on those 5 year old school gym videos from the draft, hard to understand why NBA didn't come up with something better when the guy was playing in front of a packed arena week in week out.
Uploading now. It says "3756 minutes left", so it'll be finished by next week.
@Simon
I've watched a few videos, but the more the better. If you wouldn't mind.
I have footage of Pleiss screening, rebounding, shooting midrange jumpers, making free throws, comitting fouls, making rookie mistakes, blocking, complaining to the refs on my harddisk from his playoff G5 which I could upload on Youtube. But then there are millions of his clips on the internet and all you guys have probably watched hundreds of his games, so there's probably no demand from your part for such thing.
@Greg
Maybe it's Yellow or my favorite Black
@dream catcher
Agree that ~250 should be Aldrich's playing weight.
@ThunderHorn
What was Oden's vertical?
And what are the chances of any alternate uniforms this year, maybe creamsicles? That's not likely. But an alteration to the road unis?
Aldrich's vertical isn't much worse than Cousins' or Monroe's. Lopez is a 3 inches better.
His vertical will likely increase some when he gets to the league and is in a pro S&C program and works on his explosivness and things like that.
understanding how to use your length, strength, and athleticism is more important than just being able to jump an extra couple of inches.
How many centers are jumping out of the gym anyway? His vertical compared to everyone but Howard and Oden, both freaks, is fine.
ThunderHorn :@Dylan
He might be heavier than Aldrich right now. He’s been in the league 6 years or so. Aldrich is a 21 year old college kid. Aldrich’s ideal playing weight is probably 260 or so.
I think that is too heavy for him. I read somewhere that he weighed around 240-245 during college. I think 250 is a good playing weight.
easier to read....
9'3" standing reach
7'4.75" wingspan
that is good for a center
@Dylan
He might be heavier than Aldrich right now. He's been in the league 6 years or so. Aldrich is a 21 year old college kid. Aldrich's ideal playing weight is probably 260 or so.
7'4 3/4" I meant to say
Not only does Cole have a 9'2 1/2" to 9'3 1/2" standing reach depending on what shoes he is wearing, but his wingspan is 9'4 3/4". Which means any ball near him he will gobble up either above him or at the sides.
James :
I expect Green to shoot more like he did 2 years ago than this last year. I was against drafting Aldrich before but I sure hope I was wrong. I saw a side by side comparison of Collison and Aldrich and Collison is a quarter inch shorter, 20 pounds heavier and his vertical is 5 inches higher. Collison’s reach is 3 inches shorter though. Hopefully Aldrich is what everyone on here thinks he is!
exactly 0% chance that collison is 20 pounds heavier than aldrich
@justin
Then I feel better about it to a degree.
@GAP
Not convincing you to like a pick, but he's longer than a lot of centers in the league so why complain about his size? People who say he's undersized are just wrong...
justin :I hate the 6′9″ thing. Don’t people read? What does height have anything to do with anything? Al Horford and Chris Kaman both made the All Star team at center this year and Aldrich is longer than both of them.
6 11, ok that's fine, can he jump? I agree to disagree I don't need a bunch of people trying to convince me to like a pick. I'm just not comfortable with him at 11, but to each his own. If he pans out then fine, but if not then what since your such a expert?