Last night, Shams Charania reported that the Thunder plan to waive David Nwaba and others to open up a roster spot to sign former Philadelphia 76er, Isaiah Joe. The “others” likely to be waived are Marquese Chriss and Trey Burke.
Waiving all three players would bring the active roster count down from 17 to 14 contracts, leaving just one spot open for the Joe signing. Oklahoma City will seemingly eat a little more than $10.7M to make this happen.
Joe is an intriguing pickup for Oklahoma City, who is set to go into another exploratory year with the roster. Joe, drafted at 49th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, averaged 3.7 points on 35 percent shooting in his two years with Philadelphia.
All of Nwaba, Chriss, and Burke were brought over from the Rockets in an eight-player trade that shipped off Derrick Favors, Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, and Maurice Harkless.
Nwaba is the only player brought over in the trade that saw the floor in the preseason for the Thunder while Chriss and Burke have not been with the team since the transaction was executed.
The Thunder also acquired Sterling Brown in the trade but quickly waived him at the beginning of October.
This means that all four players acquired from Houston will presumably not be on the roster going forward.
Oklahoma City opens the 2022-23 season against the new look Timberwolves on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.
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